Obama adviser: Voters have trouble trusting Romney (AP)

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's chief campaign adviser says conservative and moderate Republicans are having problems trusting GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney.

Strategist David Axelrod says it's clear Romney is running into resistance from a majority of Republican voters, given that his support is under 25 percent in most national surveys and some early voting states.

Axelrod also took aim at Romney's work at the Bain Capital private equity company. Romney has never substantiated his claim that he was a creator of more than 100,000 jobs while leading Bain. Critics cite jobs lost at Bain-acquired or Bain-supported firms that closed, cut back or shifted employment overseas.

Axelrod tells ABC's "This Week" that Romney is "a corporate raider" and that "bringing a Bain mentality" to running the economy undercuts Romney's candidacy.

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Durbin: If 2012 is a ‘referendum,’ Democrats are ‘in trouble’ (Daily Caller)

Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin told the Chicago Tribune that if the 2012 election is a “referendum” on President Barack Obama, then Democrats are “in trouble.”

In an interview Thursday for the Tribune’s “Chicago Live” series, Durbin was asked about the election.

“If it is a referendum, then we’re in trouble because the economy’s not good and people’ll say, ‘well, I just want to make it clear I don’t like the way things are,’” Durbin said.

“However,” Durbin clarified, “it won’t be. It’ll be a contest. And there’ll be two people — the president, and the Republican nominee — with very different views on what to do with America, where it should go from here, and that’s what the voters will make their choice on.”

See the video here. Durbin’s comments are six minutes in.

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Redistricting could mean trouble for Michigan Dems (Daily Caller)

Elections have consequences. Especially in a redistricting year. And Michigan Democrats are learning that the hard way.

The Republican Party of Michigan has proposed how it would like to see the redistricting process go, Roll Call reports. And unsurprisingly, the party has done what it can to keep as many of Michigan’s seats in the House of Representatives safely in Republican hands.

Due to population loss in the last decade, Michigan will be stripped of a House seat, and Republicans have re-shaped the state’s districts in a way that two districts represented by Democrats will become one. This sets the stage for a tough election between Democrats Sander Levin and Gary Peters.

The two released a join statement calling on Michigan’s state legislature (controlled by Republicans) and Gov. Rick Snyder (a Republican) to reject the proposal. “We’ve talked it over and we both deeply feel that our priority must be to get these maps changed for the betterment of democracy…This is indefensible,” Levin told reporters.

Meanwhile, one Michigan political analyst told Roll Call that the new map was fair. Republicans have been “surprisingly generous,” said Bill Ballenger, “compared to what they might have tried to do.”

(Iowa Gov. Branstad will sign redistricting plan into law)

Under the new plan, five Republican representatives will see more GOP voters moved into their district, while others who already represent solidly Republican areas won’t see much change.

The legislature hopes to vote on the new map soon, getting it to the governor’s desk for a signature before Independence Day.

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