Spin Room: Romney Surrogates Dance Around Equal Pay, Immigration Position

Two top surrogates for Mitt Romney declined after the debate at Hofstra Tuesday to outline their candidate’s position on Arizona’s immigration law and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. During the debate, President Obama specifically charged Romney with ducking questions about both laws.

“I just want to point out that when Governor Romney’s campaign was asked about the Lilly Ledbetter bill, whether he supported it, he said, ‘I’ll get back to you,’” Obama said in the debate. “And that’s not the kind of advocacy that women need in any economy.”

TPM asked Kerry Healey, Romney’s former lieutenant governor in Massachusetts, if she could rebut Obama by describing the governor’s position on that bill.

“He’s not going to have his campaign defined by what the Obama campaign wants to talk about,” she replied. “Governor Romney gave the answer that women need to know, which is that he has deliberately gone out and made sure that women were well represented and well treated and respected in his workplace and he wants to make sure that that’s the case in workplaces around the country.”

As for the specific bill: “Saying ‘will you sign this, would you support that,’ this is just a campaign tactic,” she said. “I think you should look at what Mitt Romney has done.”

Obama pressed Romney on immigration as well in the debate, saying he had called Arizona’s immigration bill a “model for the nation” and that he used its architect, Kris Kobach, as an immigration advisor.

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