Here are ten things you need to know today.
- Dems continue to push “War On Women”: Amidst a large gender gap in national polling between President Obama and likely Republican nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Democratic National Committee continues to needle their Republican counterparts’ “anti-women’s health agenda.” Responding to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus’s statement that such an agenda is “fiction,” DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz started a petition to “collect as many names as we can and deliver them to the RNC headquarters, to give them a strong dose of reality.” Read it here.
- Republicans push energy message: While mostly on defense over women voters yesterday, Republicans are hitting President Obama on energy issues, as gas prices rise ahead of summer. Romney continues to push a message based on homegrown energy, specifically citing developing every possible oil and coal source in addition to renewables. “I want to get energy in this country and become energy secure,” he said in a statement from the campaign.
- Gingrich goes after “Solyndra 2.0”: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, low on cash and keeping a low profile on the campaign trail, went after Obama on energy too. But his message was about Solar Trust, a renewable energy company that went belly up. “After the Solyndra debacle, one would think the Obama administration would stop trying to pick winners and losers with taxpayer money. But just like Solyndra, Solar Trust was set to receive a federal loan guarantee to the tune of $2.1 billion,” the Gingrich campaign wrote in a fundraising email. “As President Obama props up money-losing energy companies like Solyndra and Solar Trust, he continues to ignore common sense steps he could take today to lower the price of gasoline.”
- Huntsman the anti-surrogate: Former GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman isn’t doing the man he endorsed very many favors. In fact, Huntsman’s daughter said he won’t campaign for him at all. “My dad is not a surrogate for Romney and will not be out stumping for him in the general,” Abby Livingston said in an email to ABC News. “He is enjoying private life.”
- Former Bush aide joins Romney: One former aide to President George W. Bush is now joing team Romney. Ed Gillespie said in an email blast to reporters, “His [Romney’s] record of strong leadership as governor and proven history of great accomplishment in both the public and private sectors show he has the ability to make the tough decisions needed to be a good president, which is sadly missing right now.”
- View from Virginia women: TPM has reported on how the growing gender gap could make life very difficult for Republicans in Virginia, which has gone from deep red to swing state in only two cycles. The Christian Science Monitor headed down to take the views of women in the state, only to find women in the middle were not exactly excited about what Republicans nationally and locally were pushing. Read it here.
- Former RNC Chair holds a fundraiser for gay GOP candidate Former Republican National Committee chairman and Bush 2004 campaign manager Ken Mehlman will hold a fundraiser for former state Sen. Richard Tisei of Massachusetts, an openly gay GOP candidate. Mehlman himself came out as a gay man in 2010.
- Obama to speak on women and the economy Friday: With an eye toward keeping the outsized support of women voters that President Obama has seen in the last few weeks of public polling, “President Obama will deliver remarks at the White House Forum on Women and the Economy to highlight ways the Administration has helped create economic security for women and recognizes that women are key to economic growth and competitiveness,” the White House said in a release.
- Romney picks up more Congressional endorsements: Romney continues to gain more establishment endorsements as he looks to be sealing the nomination sooner rather than later. Romney picked up the nod from National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Congressman Pete Sessions, House Republican Conference Secretary Congressman John Carter and Congressman Mac Thornberry on Thursday.
- No publicly schedule campaign events today: None of the candidates will be making any stops today on the trail. Today is both Good Friday and and the beginning of Passover.
