Battleground status for more states?

With less than a week left for elections, the Romney campaign believes it has opened up possibilities, bringing into play states it had earlier given up as too Democratic to bother. Yashwant Raj reports. Storm handling

With less than a week left for elections, the Romney campaign believes it has opened up possibilities, bringing into play states it had earlier given up as too Democratic to bother.

The Obama camp slammed it as myth-making.

Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota voted for President Barack Obama in 2008, and have, in fact, gone with Democrats since 1988. And polls show they are still with him.

But the Romney campaign spies a chance to break them away, because the president’s lead in those polls is not much

— he has not scored more than 50% there, they argue.

The two camps clashed about these new possibilities in separate conference calls for reporters on Wednesday, armed with conveniently compatible data.

“I think we’re in a great position to win,” said a senior Romney adviser Russ Schriefer, adding Obama has not crossed 50% in polls in the three states.

Romney campaign is releasing ads there and sending surrogates — the candidate’s son Tagg Romney and Republican senator Marco Rubio were in Pennsylvania on Thursday.

“We have the math, they have the myth,” said Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, anticipating that claim in a conference call he addressed earlier. “There is no Romney momentum.”