Battleground issues drive the campaign message in final stretch

Oct. 24, 2012: Mitt Romney and President Obama are shown campaigning at separate events in Nevada. (AP)

The final weeks of the presidential race have come down to a handful of state-level battles, in which both campaigns have finely honed their messages on near-and-dear issues in hopes of convincing the last, undecided voters.

The road to the White House is essentially a final frenzied tour through Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. In these states, Mitt Romney and President Obama are separated by less than 3 percentage points, according to an averaging of polls by the website RealClearPolitics. States like Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan are also close, but the above battlegrounds are the bona fide toss-ups -- and the candidates are taking pains to address each and every issue that hits home in those states.

Maybe the so-called budget "sequester" -- mandatory budget cuts that will erode defense spending unless averted -- doesn't mean much to someone in rural Nebraska, but in defense contractor-heavy Virginia, it's all the campaigns are talking about. And housing, while an issue across the country, is pivotal in Florida where the housing market has pummeled the state.

Here's a look at what local issues could end up deciding the 2012 presidential race:

In Virginia, Obama and Romney are each promising they can avert looming military cuts that would hurt a local economy dependent on defense contracts.

“I will not cut our military,” Romney said during a rally last month in the Virginia Tidewater region, home to military bases and a large veteran population. “You listened to … talk about the cuts the president has put in place for our military. It’s unthinkable to Virginia.”

The Romney campaign also has run ads in that region and in northern Virginia that claim the cuts will “weaken national security,” in addition to eliminating at least 130,000 jobs.

The Obama campaign has reminded voters the Republican-controlled House, which includes Romney running mate Rep. Paul Ryan, voted in favor of the cuts -- or rather, the debt-ceiling deal which set up a committee to cut the deficit and created the mandatory cuts as a fallback. And during a recent stop in Virginia Beach, the president widened his pitch by vowing to help returning veterans and subtly reminding voters that state Republican lawmakers this year proposed controversial legislation on women’s reproductive issues.

“No one who fights for this country should fight for a job or roof over their heads when they come home,” the president said.

Latest poll reading: Edge to Romney

In Colorado, the race boils down to a fight for roughly 100,000 undecided voters – largely independents and women who support abortion rights.

The demographics -- including the 21 percent of the population who are Hispanics and who helped Obama win the state in 2008 -- still appear to favor Obama. But the president’s populist message that works so well with working-class Midwestern voters appears less attractive this time in Colorado -- a largely affluent, non-union state.

Romney campaign adviser Kevin Madden said Tuesday his candidate is also addressing such “kitchen table” issues as unemployment and rising energy and health care costs, but with a more clear-cut plan.

“We feel really good about Colorado,” he said.

Latest poll reading: Virtually tied

Florida is a classic battleground state in which Romney has recently taken a small lead. With South Florida and the large immigrant population in metropolitan Miami most likely voting Democrat and the Gulf Coast leaning toward Romney, the candidates have focused on voters in the central region and the state’s severe housing-mortgage crisis.

Vice President Biden last week touted an administration plan that makes banks provide mortgage relief to non-delinquent homeowners and argued the housing industry is making a recovery.

“No state has been devastated more by housing than this state,” he said at a rally in St. Augustine. “Housing starts, they're at their highest rate since July of 2008, and they say America is in decline.”

The Tampa Bay Times, the state’s largest newspaper, has endorsed the president, while the rival Orlando Sentinel supports Romney, after backing Obama in 2008.

Latest poll reading: Edge to Romney

Iowa also voted for Obama in 2008 and, as in years past, remains a major part of the presidential campaign landscape.

The president attended the state fair this summer and returned this week with essentially the same working-class pitch, but with more attacks on Romney.

He said during a rally in Davenport that Romney's five-point plan is really only a "one-point" plan that serves the wealthiest Americans and that he will "stick the middle class with the bill." Obama also suggested the Republican presidential nominee is not supportive of teachers or auto workers. In addition, the president has repeatedly argued Romney was against his taxpayer-funded bailout of the U.S. auto industry.