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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Senate Republicans Challenge Obama\'s Recess Appointments

By ASHLEY SOUTHALL

Senate Republicans have filed a friend-of-the-court brief challenging President Obama's appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, reigniting a confrontation over presidential power.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, announced on Wednesday that 42 of the 47 Republicans in the Senate had signed the petition filed in the federal appeals court in Washington.

The lawmakers argued that the Senate was not in recess in January when Mr. Obama appointed three lawyers to the labor board and Richard Cordray as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They said in the brief that the appointments were unconstitutional.

“The president's decision to circumvent the American people by installing his appointees at a powerful federal agency while the Senate was continuing to hold sessions, and without obtaining the advice and consent of the Senate, is an unprecedented power grab,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement.

Mr. Obama made the recess appointments on Jan. 4. Kathryn Ruemmler, the White House counsel, said at the time that the installments were lawful because the Senate was “unavailable to fulfill its function.”

Republicans were furious, arguing that the Senate held two brief “pro forma” sessions on Jan. 3 and 6. The brief filed on Wednesday fulfilled their repeated promises to challenge the appointments in court.

“The president claims power to deem the Senate not ‘genuinely capable of exercising its constitutional function' during pro forma sessions and thus in a de facto recess,” Miguel Estrada, the senators' attorney, wrote in the brief. “But the Cons titution confers no such power, and allowing the president to wield it would oust the Senate from its own constitutional role.”

Mr. Estrada, a former lawyer for the George H. W. Bush administration, was nominated to the federal appeals court in Washington in 2001. He withdrew his name two years later after Democrats blocked his confirmation in the Senate.

The brief was filed in Noel Canning v. the National Labor Relations Board, a case from Washington State brought by a bottling and canning company disputing a ruling by the labor board that the company violated federal labor laws.

The White House and Congressional Republicans have battled extensively over executive powers during Mr. Obama's term. Experts say the question of whether Congress can block a president from making recess appointments by staying in pro forma session turns on what counts as a recess - and who gets to decide.

The Republican senators who did not sign the brief are Scott P. Bro wn of Massachusetts, Dean Heller of Nevada, Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine.

Charlie Savage contributed reporting.



Column on Romney-Ryan Meant as Satire Is Taken as Fact

By TRIP GABRIEL

No, Representative Paul D. Ryan has not given the nickname “Stench” to Mitt Romney, despite a host of credulous journalists and bloggers who accepted as fact a column that Politico intended as satire.

The columnist, Roger Simon, used a quotation in The New York Times that was first published online Sunday in which an Iowa Republican activist, Craig Robinson, speculated about simmering tensions between Mr. Ryan and Mr. Romney, and Mr. Ryan's future if the Romney-Ryan ticket loses in November.

“I hate to say this, but if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he'll probably have to wash the stench of Romney off of him,'' Mr. Robinson said.

Mr. Simon, Politico's chief political colum nist, conjured a situation in which Mr. Ryan was doing all he could on the campaign trail to distance himself from Mr. Romney. “Reportedly, he has been marching around his campaign bus, saying things like, ‘If Stench calls, take a message' and ‘Tell Stench I'm having finger sandwiches with Peggy Noon and will text him later,''' Mr. Simon wrote.

The column continued in that vein, with broad hints of its satirical nature. Its lead sentence read: “Paul Ryan has gone rogue. He is unleashed, unchained, off the hook.”

Yet many political writers, almost all left-leaning, accepted Mr. Simon's account, which contained no named sources, as straight reporting.

On MSNBC on Tuesday night, the host Lawrence O'Donnell said: “Paul Ryan is desperately trying to avoid the stench of Romney. Yes, the stench. That is what Paul Ryan is actually calling Mitt Romney, according to Politico.''

On Mediaite, a press gossip site, Tommy Ch ristopher wrote:

“It's true that Roger Simon is a columnist, and the quotes are unsourced, leaving the piece vulnerable to attack by folks like MSNBC's Republican analyst Susan Del Percio, who called the ‘Stench' remarks ‘alleged quotes' on air yesterday, but such qualms are for the tourists. Simon's anecdote has the recognizable (to the Beltway crowd) ring of truth that renders it canonical in political circles.''

Gawker, a gossip site, opined: “Rather than decry Robinson's comments or reaffirm his commitment to the Romney ticket since the Times story broke, Ryan has been running with the nickname, according to Politico.''

Paul Krugman, the Times columnist, also thought it was real, not fake news. On his blog, The Conscience of a Liberal, Mr. Krugman wrote: “Can I say that even though I'm not exactly a fan of Mitt Romney's, this is just bad behavior? You're supposed to wait until it's actually over before you do this kind of thing.''

Faced with the flood of misrepresentations, Mr. Simon added an author's note to his column to emphasize that it was satire, writing in part, “Jonathan Swift did not really want Irish people to sell their children for food in 1729; George Orwell did not really want the clocks to strike thirteen in 1984.”

Some who had misread the column corrected themselves, including Mr. Krugman, who updated his blog: “OK, the word is this was really clumsy satire.''

The issue of how clumsy seems to have been colored by the writers' and broadcasters' own partisan filters. Most who gleefully repeated the bogus “Stench” nickname worked for left-leaning news media outlets.

“Some people always don't get a joke,'' Mr. Simon said in an e-mail exchange. “Judging from my Twitter feed and other anecdotal evidence, an overwhelming number of people got the satire and a some actually thought it was funny,'' he said.

“Satire has been called ‘the lie that tells the truth ,' and that is why people react so strongly to it and that is why, for centuries, it has been such a powerful tool for writers. They will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. (That was satire, by the way.)''

As for Mr. Robinson, a former political director of the Iowa Republican Party and now editor-in-chief of The Iowa Republican, “things have gotten a little crazy,'' he said Wednesday.

“It's a sad day for traditional media when numerous ‘journalists' quote a satirical column as if it is fact,'' he added.



The Caucus Click: Guarding the National Debt

By STEPHEN CROWLEY

Cherokee Chief Demands Scott Brown Apologize for Supporters\' Actions

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

BOSTON - The principal chief of the Cherokee Nation has asked Senator Scott P. Brown to apologize for what he called the “downright racist” gestures of Brown supporters at a campaign event Saturday in Dorchester, Mass.

A video released Tuesday showed some members of Mr. Brown's Senate and campaign staffs among a group of Brown supporters making tomahawk chops and chanting Indian war whoops in a shout-down with supporters of Elizabeth Warren, his Democratic challenger, outside the Eire Pub. Mr. Brown was inside, greeting voters.

“The conduct of these individuals goes far beyond what is appropriate and proper in political discourse,” the chief, Bill John Baker, said in a statement. “ The use of stereotypical ‘war whoop chants' and ‘tomahawk chops' are offensive and downright racist. It is those types of actions that perpetuate negative stereotypes and continue to minimize and degrade all native peoples.”

The video was taken by a tracker for the Massachusetts Democratic Party. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that a state Republican Party spokesman confirmed that one of those making the gestures and leading the whoops was one of its field coordinators, Brad Garnett. State Democratic officials identified another person making the gestures as Jack Richard, a lawyer who works on constituent services in Mr. Brown's Senate office.

Mr. Brown said Tuesday that he did not condone such behavior but added that Ms. Warren was the one who needed to apologize for claiming to be, as he phrased it at last week's debate, “a person of color” which, he said, “clearly she is not.” As he put it on Tuesday when he s aid he would not apologize: “The apologies that need to be made and the offensiveness here is the fact that Professor Warren took advantage of a claim, to be somebody â€" a Native American - and using that for an advantage, a tactical advantage.”

Ms. Warren has said that she based her claims of Native American ancestry on family lore, that none of her employers were aware of her background when she was hired and that she in no way benefited from it. It is not clear how much the issue has hurt her candidacy over the last several months, but it has risen to such a fever pitch now that she is airing a television ad defending her assertions of her ancestry.

Mr. Brown is also airing a television ad on the matter and began his first debate by saying that Ms. Warren's claims regarding her ancestry showed she was of questionable character.

Ms. Warren described the video released Tuesday as “appalling” and said that had members of her staff been involved in such a display, they would have faced “serious consequences.” Mr. Brown said that if his staffers had been involved, he would ask them not to do it again.

The Brown campaign did not respond on Wednesday for comment on Mr. Baker's statement.

Mr. Baker has supported Democratic causes in the past and was not part of a move earlier this year by some members of the Cherokee Nation who started a Web site demanding “the truth” from Ms. Warren about her background.



In Ohio, Obama Takes On Romney Over China and Jobs

By HELENE COOPER

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - President Obama joined his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, in this crucial swing state on Wednesday, trumpeting his recently opened unfair-trade case against China in a bid to shore up support here before Election Day.

Again accusing Mr. Romney of profiting from companies that outsource jobs to China, Mr. Obama sought to push a narrative in this manufacturing state of himself as an advocate of the American worker. His visit to Ohio meshed with the second day of Mr. Romney's bus tour of the state, where he has been joined by his running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan.

“Now I understand why my opponent has been spending some time in Ohio lately, and he's been talking tough on China,” Mr. Obama told a crowd of 5,700 students and supporters at Bowling Green State University, who booed obligingly. “He says he's going to take the fight to them.”

Mr. Obama added, “I've got to admit that message is better than what he's actually done on China.”

With recent polls showing the president with a lead in Ohio and early voting scheduled to start on Tuesday, Mr. Obama is trying to nail down this bellwether state. That is a tall order, but Obama advisers said that early voting meant a chance to put people who voted now out of reach of Mr. Romney.

The president clearly got that campaign memo.

“Ohio, starting on Oct. 2, which is just six days from now, you get to start voting,” Mr. Obama said. “You get to have your say.”

But Mr. Romney was campaigning hard in the state too, his last big campaign push before he goes dark for a few days to prepare for the first presidential debate nex t week.

The president is back on the campaign trail after several days in which the focus was on foreign policy and national security. Mr. Obama was at the United Nations General Assembly this week, and Mr. Romney was in New York on Tuesday as well, speaking before the Clinton Global Initiative about development issues and foreign aid.

With just five weeks left until the election, the president is trying hard to gallop ahead while he can. His advisers say he is not a good debater and is more reliant on connecting on the campaign trail.

Several times on Wednesday, Mr. Obama referred to comments by Mr. Romney that 47 percent of voters were reliant on government entitlements and would not vote for him.

“I don't think we can get very far with leaders who write off half the nation as a bunch of victims,” Mr. Obama said. “As I ride around Ohio, I don't see a bunch of victims.”

After visiting Bowling Green, the president headed to Kent State U niversity to continue his Ohio efforts. On Thursday, he will visit another swing state, Virginia, and then go to Nevada on Sunday before settling into two days of debate preparations in Denver.



Why Credit Scores Aren\'t Always What They Seem

By ANN CARRNS

When consumers buy access to their credit score, there's a good chance they're not seeing the same score a lender sees, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reports.

Specifically, one in five consumers who pays for a score from one of the major credit bureaus will probably receive a meaningfully different score than the one a lender will use to make a decision about lending the consumer money, the agency says.

That's because the scores sold to consumers are not necessarily generated by the scoring models used to create scores sold to lenders - usually, some version of the FICO score, created by the company of the same name. Rather, consumers may be sold “educational” scores, created by using different models.

Even if consumers buy a FICO score - like those at the myfico.com Web site, which offers scores generated by credit data from the TransUnion and Equifax credit agencies - and go to a lender that uses FICO scores, the purchased score still may not be the one that particular creditor uses. That's because there are many different versions of the FICO score, depending on various factors, like the type of credit a consumer is applying for, the version of FICO's model the lender is using and the credit bureau the lender uses.

For its analysis, the agency looked at credit scores generated from 200,000 randomly selected credit files at each of the three major credit bureaus: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.

For a majority of consumers, the agency found, the scores produced by different scoring models provided similar information about the relative creditworthiness of the consumers. But for a substantial minority, diff erent scoring models gave meaningfully different results.

A meaningful difference, the agency said, means the consumer would probably qualify for better or worse credit offers than those they would expect to get based on the score they bought. As a result, the bureau concluded, consumers shouldn't rely exclusively on those scores to gauge how a lender would evaluate their creditworthiness.

The report stopped short of saying that credit scores bought by consumers were worthless. But it's hard to see why you should pay for a score if you can't be certain that it's the one a lender would use. After all, isn't that why you want to see it in the first place?

The agency recommended that firms selling scores make consumers aware that the scores they buy may vary substantially from scores used by creditors. And it's possible the agency will recommend changes in the way scores are marketed to consumers, when it assumes regulatory authority over the credit bureaus th is month.

For now, the agency advises consumers to be aware that multiple versions of credit scores exist. And they should periodically review their credit reports, which provide the raw data used to produce credit scores, and dispute any errors.

John Ulzheimer, a credit expert, said the agency's report suggested that scores being sold to consumers were a “fairly good approximation” of their FICO score, but were “clearly not good enough.”

Chi Chi Wu, a lawyer with the National Consumer Law Center, said in a statement that the “obvious policy solution” was for Congress to grant consumers the right to a free annual copy of the score most widely used by lenders. Right now, consumers can get a free copy annually of their credit report - on which credit scores are based - but not of their credit score.

Do you think a free annual peek at your basic FICO credit score would be beneficial?



McCaskill Hits Akin for \'Legitimate Rape\' Comments in New Ad

By STEVEN YACCINO

When Republicans started calling for Todd Akin to bow out of the United States Senate race in Missouri last month, Senator Claire McCaskill, his Democratic opponent, tried to avoid talking about his “legitimate rape” controversy on the campaign trail. But now that the final deadline for Mr. Akin to withdraw has passed, with Mr. Akin locked in as the Republican nominee, she is swinging as expected.

A new television advertisement released by Ms. McCaskill's campaign on Tuesday threw the first punch in what is not likely to be the candidate's last mention of a comment Mr. Akin made in an August television interview that the female body naturally prevents pregnancy in instances of “legitimate rape.â €

The advertisement flips through a list of Mr. Akin's “own words” on myriad issues - Social Security, Medicare, minimum wage, student loans - ending with a jab that many Democrats have been waiting for since the firestorm began.

“And on Aug. 19, Todd Akin said only some rapes are legitimate,” the 30-second spot said. “What will he say next?”

The race in Missouri has been one of the most closely watched battles this election cycle, as Ms. McCaskill has shown vulnerabilities in her state and many see it as a crucial seat in the Republicans' effort to take control the Senate.

Mr. Akin's defiance to stay in the race, even after losing the backing and financing of the Republican establishment, now has some Republicans reconsidering their support as high-profile endorsements from within the party emerge.

On Wednesday morning, a former Republican presidential candidate, Rick Santorum, sent an e-mail to suppo rters informing them that he and Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina would announce their endorsement of Mr. Akin's candidacy.

“If Republicans are to win back the Senate and stop President Obama's liberal agenda, we must defeat Senator Claire McCaskill in Missouri,” the statement said. “Her support of President Obama's job-killing, big-spending policies are sending our country into an economic abyss.”

Calling Mr. Akin a “principled conservative” it continued: “We support Todd Akin and hope freedom-loving Americans in Missouri and around the country will join us so we can save our country from fiscal collapse.”

Showing his commitment to stay in the race on Tuesday, Mr. Akin began a bus tour across the state this week.



McCaskill Hits Akin for \'Legitimate Rape\' Comments in New Ad

By STEVEN YACCINO

When Republicans started calling for Todd Akin to bow out of the United States Senate race in Missouri last month, Senator Claire McCaskill, his Democratic opponent, tried to avoid talking about his “legitimate rape” controversy on the campaign trail. But now that the final deadline for Mr. Akin to withdraw has passed, with Mr. Akin locked in as the Republican nominee, she is swinging as expected.

A new television advertisement released by Ms. McCaskill's campaign on Tuesday threw the first punch in what is not likely to be the candidate's last mention of a comment Mr. Akin made in an August television interview that the female body naturally prevents pregnancy in instances of “legitimate rape.â €

The advertisement flips through a list of Mr. Akin's “own words” on myriad issues - Social Security, Medicare, minimum wage, student loans - ending with a jab that many Democrats have been waiting for since the firestorm began.

“And on Aug. 19, Todd Akin said only some rapes are legitimate,” the 30-second spot said. “What will he say next?”

The race in Missouri has been one of the most closely watched battles this election cycle, as Ms. McCaskill has shown vulnerabilities in her state and many see it as a crucial seat in the Republicans' effort to take control the Senate.

Mr. Akin's defiance to stay in the race, even after losing the backing and financing of the Republican establishment, now has some Republicans reconsidering their support as high-profile endorsements from within the party emerge.

On Wednesday morning, a former Republican presidential candidate, Rick Santorum, sent an e-mail to suppo rters informing them that he and Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina would announce their endorsement of Mr. Akin's candidacy.

“If Republicans are to win back the Senate and stop President Obama's liberal agenda, we must defeat Senator Claire McCaskill in Missouri,” the statement said. “Her support of President Obama's job-killing, big-spending policies are sending our country into an economic abyss.”

Calling Mr. Akin a “principled conservative” it continued: “We support Todd Akin and hope freedom-loving Americans in Missouri and around the country will join us so we can save our country from fiscal collapse.”

Showing his commitment to stay in the race on Tuesday, Mr. Akin began a bus tour across the state this week.



The Annual Health Benefits Gamble

By ANN CARRNS

It's soon to be open enrollment season for many workplace health plans, when employees choose their coverage for the coming year. And while this may be an annual ritual, many workers, according to a recent survey, have trouble determining which plan is right for them.

Choosing annual benefits is often a gamble, even if, like my family, you're fortunate enough to be in good health and have pretty good insurance options. None of us has a serious chronic condition, and we use few prescription medications. So last year, after weighing our choices, we opted to keep our monthly premiums low by going with what we considered to be a substantial ($5,000 plus) family deductible. Everyone was reasonably healthy, we reasoned. Our children are well out of the phase when they catch every bug going around school, and we had enough emergency savings in case something pricey cropped up.

Essentially, we considered the odds and wagered that the coming year would be like the last year. And we pretty much lost that bet.

Illness happens, even to generally healthy people. For various reasons, our family ended up having unusually frequent visits to the doctor (not to mention the dentist, but that's another issue). So we quickly exhausted the upfront health “credit” that our plan provides, to cover costs before the deductible must be met. We probably won't top our deductible, but we're still (ouch) a couple of thousand dollars out of pocket. Our overall bill at the end of the year would probably be lower if we had gone with a higher premium and a lower deductible.

So it's no surprise to me that a survey from the health insurer Aetna found that cons umers think health care benefits decisions are confusing, second only to retirement savings in complexity.

The Aetna Empowered Health Index Survey was conducted over the phone, including both land line and cellphones, by KRC Research in late July among 1,500 adults. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percent.

A quarter of Americans who have health insurance told the pollsters that they found it difficult to make the right health decisions. They said the available information was confusing and complicated (88 percent), there was conflicting information (84 percent), and it was difficult to know which plan is right for them (83 percent).

Also, 81 percent said they found it difficult to make decisions because they didn't know the cost of various medical procedures.

It all sounds dishearteningly familiar, as we prepare to evaluate our choices again.

On the plus side, health plans this fall are required by the Affordable Care Act to pro vide a simple-language “Summary of Benefits and Coverage” form, to help consumers compare health plan options. Consumers Union, which helped test the format of the disclosure form before it was adopted by the federal government, offers a sample form online. It also includes a coverage example of how much certain events, like having a baby, would cost under the plan. You also can give your opinion on the form you receive online. The forms are available to people insured through employers, as well as those shopping for insurance on their own. If you don't get such a form, you should contact your insurer or your employer, Consumers Union advises.

How do you make decisions about health benefits coverage? Does your plan offer helpful tools for making the choice?



New Polls Show Ohio and Florida Senators Maintaining Lead Over Challengers

By JEFF ZELENY

TAMPA, Fla. - In the battle for control of the United States Senate, the Democratic Party has little room for error and is particularly intent on protecting senators who are standing for re-election in presidential battleground states.

A pair of new polls by Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News shows that Senators Bill Nelson of Florida and Sherrod Brown of Ohio have maintained strong leads over their Republican challengers.

In Florida, the poll found that Mr. Nelson was leading his Republican challenger, Representative Connie Mack, 53 percent to 39 percent. In Ohio, the poll found that Mr. Brown was leading his Republican opponent, State Treasurer Josh Mandel, 50 percent to 40 percent.

The Florida and Ohio polls of likely voters each have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for each candidate. The telephone poll was conducted by landlines and cellphones from Sept. 18 to 24.

While Republican groups initially targeted Ohio and Florida as potential opportunities to pick up seats from Democrats, with 41 days remaining until Election Day, Democrats hold clear advantages in both states.

A poll of likely Pennsylvania voters showed a somewhat closer Senate race, with Senator Bob Casey holding a six-point lead over his Republican opponent, Tom Smith, by 49 percent to 43 percent. That contest has not been widely seen as a pick-up opportunity for Republicans, party strategists say, but the poll found that the race has tightened since a July poll that found Mr. Casey with 55 percent to 37 percent for Mr. Smith.



Republican Committee Seeks to Match Obama Ground Game

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

Every night, state-based field operatives hired by the Republican National Committee are collecting daily absentee ballot reports from elections officials in Colorado, Florida and North Carolina.

The reports provide the names and party identification for everyone who has requested an absentee ballot that day in those four states, which are among those that have most aggressively embraced early voting. The committee staff combs through the nightly reports in an effort to better target voters with turn-out-the-vote literature that is already being mailed out.

It is one tiny example of the committee's ground game on behalf of Mitt Romney and Representative Paul D. Ryan - a multimillion dollar effo rt that is largely being financed and coordinated out of the party's national headquarters in Washington D.C., not the campaign's Boston-based operation.

Top Republican officials on Tuesday described those efforts in some detail to The New York Times, asserting that President Obama's organizational advantage in 2008 will not be replicated this year because of the concerted efforts of a reconstituted Republican National Committee.

“We will pass our 30 millionth voter contact some time early this week,” Rick Wiley, the political director for the committee, said in an interview. “That's more than the entire cycle in 2004 or 2008. You are seeing these huge numbers being posted by these volunteers out there.”

Mr. Romney will need all the help he can get.

Polls in critical battleground states continued to trend against Mr. Romney this week. A Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS News survey out Wednesday and a separate poll b y The Washington Post and ABC News each showed Mr. Obama leading Mr. Romney in Florida and Ohio.

That is putting increasing pressure on committee efforts to identify and turn out Mr. Romney's voters even as early balloting begins in several states six weeks before Election Day.

Officials at the Democratic National Committee declined to comment about the on-the-ground competition between the two parties. Comparisons are difficult - while the committee is financing nearly all of Mr. Romney's ground game, the Democratic effort is more of a shared responsibility between Mr. Obama's campaign and the Democratic committee, with Mr. Obama's campaign playing a much bigger role than Mr. Romney's.

Mr. Obama's campaign said that it had made 43 million calls to voters but would not provide numbers of on-the-ground staff for comparison purposes. The campaign said its effort will be even bigger than the one Mr. Obama fielded four years ago.

Democrats also got a much earlier start than Mr. Romney. Many of the president's 2008 campaign staff members stayed in battleground states during the past four years, paid by the Democratic committee to maintain offices and equipment and field staff. Those offices are now run under the auspices of Mr. Obama's 2012 campaign.

“We've made early investments in battleground states to grow strong roots in neighborhoods across the country and keep an open conversation going with undecided voters for months,” said Adam Fetcher, a spokesman for Mr. Obama's campaign. “That takes time, and it will make the difference on Nov. 6.”

But Republican officials say the Republican committee began setting up its operations in critical states even before Mr. Romney clinched the nomination in May. Conversations about the Republican committee's plans were had with Mr. Romney and all of his rivals during the primaries, they said.

The question will be whether the Republican committee's effort can he lp Mr. Romney overcome a surging incumbent president in some key states and a Democratic campaign that has spent four years building up its own infrastructure.

Republican officials cite a series of statistics to suggest that it will. Among them:

- The Republican committee effort is making contact with three million voters each week in the battleground states, a number they say will grow “dramatically” during the last six weeks of the campaign.

- The party has hired 600 paid field staff members, mostly in the battleground states. Those numbers do not count the members of the state Republican parties that are already in place.

- Republicans have opened 300 offices that serve as the backbone of Mr. Romney's presidential campaign in the states. (Mr. Obama's campaign has publicly said, by contrast, that it has opened 208 offices in Colorado, Nevada and Ohio alone.)

- The Republican committee paid out $22 million in September alone to pay for grou nd-game activities in battleground states, including staffing, phone calls, polling, targeting, voter registration efforts, and other data efforts.

“From running a top-notch ground game to supplementing the Romney campaign's message on the air, the R.N.C. is doing everything we can under the law to elect Mitt Romney to the White House,” Reince Priebus, the Republican committee chairman, said in a statement.

Mr. Obama has had success with small-dollar donors, who have fueled contributions directly to his presidential campaign. The president is on track to raise as much as - or even more than - the $750 million he raised in his presidential campaign four years ago.

For Mr. Romney, whose campaign has raised money at a feverish pace to be able to match Mr. Obama's advertising budget, the Republican committee's efforts are a necessity. Without the committee's infrastructure spending, Mr. Romney's campaign would have been forced to divert precious advertising money to his ground game.

One advantage for Mr. Romney is his success with very wealthy donors who can afford to contribute the maximum contribution of $78,800. Of that, only $5,000 goes to Mr. Romney's campaign. The other $73,800 goes to funds that the committee controls, in part to pay for the field staff and infrastructure.

Republican officials said that much of that money is being held by four Republican state parties deemed especially friendly to the national committee: Idaho, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Vermont. Those states, called “bank states” by the committee, serve as temporary way stations for the cash until the battleground states need it.

“We don't transfer money into the battleground states until it's time to spend it,” said Jeff Larson, the chief of staff at the Republican committee. “We can hold the money and parse it out as its needed.”

The Republican committee is also using every opportunity to help defray costs that wo uld otherwise have to be paid by Mr. Romney's campaign. A campaign event that includes state and local Republican candidates can be classified as a “victory event,” with the costs divided between Mr. Romney's campaign and the national committee, Mr. Larson said.

Four years ago, advisers to Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, famously clashed with committee officials. The Republican voter turnout effort was easily trounced by Mr. Obama's efficient and well-financed organization.

This time, the Romney campaign is filled with ex-committee officials and the committee has senior staff members who are close to top Romney aides. Mr. Romney may still lose the election, but committee officials said Tuesday that it will not be because of a lack of a concerted, well-organized effort on the ground.

Follow Michael D. Shear on Twitter at @shearm.



Wednesday Reading: Making Vegan Food The New Normal

By ANN CARRNS

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.



Romney Makes Direct Claim of Compassion as \"47 Percent\" Drives Ads

By SARAH WHEATON
Ad Watch

Tracking and analyzing campaign advertising.

Mitt Romney's “47 percent” remarks are continuing to drive ad messages on both sides in the presidential race.

Mr. Romney, the Republican candidate, has an unusual new ad out on Wednesday morning, “Too Many Americans,” in which he speaks directly to the camera for nearly a minute.

“President Obama and I both care about poor and middle-class families,” Mr. Romney says. “The difference is my policies will make things better for them.”

Mr. Romney adds, “We should measure compassion by how many people are able to get off w elfare and get a good paying job,” contending that his plan will create 12 million new jobs.

The Romney spot directly contradicts an Obama ad released Tuesday afternoon.

As the now famous footage of Mr. Romney at a Florida fund-raiser plays on the screen, an announcer says, “When Mitt Romney dismissed 47 percent of Americans for not pulling their weight, he attacked millions of hard working people making 25-, 35-, 45 thousand dollars a year.”

The 30-second spot then pivots to Mr. Romney's own taxes, noting that he paid “just 14 percent in taxes last year,” mostly on investment income.

“Instead of attacking folks who work for a living, shouldn't we stand up for them?” the narrator concludes. “Fair Share” is running in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Virginia.

Mr. Romney's campaign typically does not release information about where its ads are running, but Mr. Romne y will be in Ohio Wednesday, as will President Obama. So it is a fair bet that the ad will at least be there, too.