Mitt Romney released a new campaign commercial in Wisconsin on Wednesday in which he touts his fiscal record as governor in Massachusetts and argues the federal government should act more like a business — as he looks ahead to the state’s winner-take-all contest early next month.
The 30-second spot opens with what has become one of the Romney go-to lines on the stump: “I spent my career in the private sector.”
Speaking to a crowd, the 65-year-old candidate shares the story of how he turned around a $3 billion budget shortfall as governor without raising taxes and while cutting spending. By the time he left office at the end of his first and only term, Mr. Romney says the state had over $2 billion in the so-called “rainy day fund.”
“The principles of business work in government and it’s high time to bring those principles of fiscal responsibility to Washington, D.C.,” he says in the spot.
Mr. Romney is riding high following wins in Puerto Rico on Sunday and Illinois on Tuesday, helping him to extend his delegate count to 563, putting him more than 300 ahead of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and well on his way to the 1,144 delegates needed to wrap up the party’s nomination before the Republican convention in Florida in August.
While Mr. Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich focused their attention on Louisiana, which votes Saturday, Mr. Romney campaigned in Maryland on Wednesday, which along with Washington D.C. and Wisconsin hold its primary on April 3; all three are winner-take-all contests.
The could pose problems for Mr. Santorum, who failed to get on the ballot in Washington, D.C., where 19 delegates are up for grabs.
Mr. Romney is holding a fundraiser Thursday in Washington.
