Mitt Romney speaks at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion Las Vegas

By Chellie Cervone - Posted: Sep 21, 2012 at 5:06 pm

Mitt Romney speaks at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion Las Vegas

RENO, NV - JULY 24: Republican presidential c...

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Today, Mitt Romney speaks at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion Las Vegas after first attending a private fundraiser.

Nevada is an important destination and both President Obama and the Republican Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney have made numerous stops to the Silver State.

Including today’s visit, this will be Mitt Romney’s sixth visit to the Silver State. President Obama has visited seven times, although not all of those seven visits were officially tied in to campaigning.

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Before Mitt Romney speaks at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion Las Vegas, he made an appearance at the Red Rock Resort for a fundraiser.

It was expected to be another high dollar fundraiser.

The donation levels per person were reported to be $2,500 to attend, a $10,000 VIP Level which included photo opportunities with the Republican Presidential candidate, and a very high price tag of $25,000 for a private meeting with Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney raised $1 million last month in Reno, NV

Last month in Reno, NV, Mitt Romney raised over $1 million in a series of high dollar private fundraisers.

The main event was held at the home of local businesswoman, Patty Wade at a $25,000 per plate luncheon.

Mitt Romney speaks at UNLVS’ Cox Pavilion Las Vegas about jobs

After Romney’s high dollar fundraiser at Red Rock, he made his way to the Cox Pavillion at UNLV.

The Cox Pavilion is a relatively small venue which holds slightly over 3,000 people.

Mitt Romney was engaging, was well prepared and appeared to speak “off the cuff”.

He made eye contact with many in the audience.

The Presidential candidate spoke about the creation of jobs, a huge issue in Nevada since the Silver State continues to have a very high, double digit, unemployment rate.

Mitt Romney proclaimed that ,'”Washington is broken”, and appeared to cement his promise to encourage people to visit Nevada.

That statement likely hit home for many and was intended as a jab to President Obama since he has made disparaging remarks about Las Vegas not once but twice.

The first time was February 9, 2009 when President Obama, trying to gain support for his stimulus bill, talked about the use of federal bailout money and said,

you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime.

And then he insulted Las Vegas almost a year later on February 2. 2010 in New Hampshire when he said,

You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.

Both of the President’s remarks, are viewed as helping to contribute to the further decline of the Las Vegas economy.

Romney is under fire too for remarks that he made to a wealthy group of donors in Boca Raton , Florida this past May, slamming nearly one-half of the American people. He did not not know that his comments were secretly recorded.

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax

In an effort to counteract the negativity he received, Romney used the food stamps program as an example of how government would be compassionate under his leadership.

He said that the government would still be compassionate to people and specifically named senior citizens. He went on to say that compassion won’t be measured by how many people are on food stamps, but how many people are off food stamps.

He did not mention if he considered those people to be in the 47% of Americans that he referred to in the video.

Romney did not make any mention about his wife, Ann Romney, who was on a plane that was forced to make an emergency landing in Colorado due to smoke in the cabin.

She is scheduled to be in Las Vegas for a private fundraiser on October 1.