WASHINGTON--The Obama team is opening a new front, moving to Mitt Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts. That's a period Romney does not speak a lot about, instead focusing on his time in the private sector, as chief of Bain--the company the Obama team has in the crosshairs.

11:30 a.m. Thursday: Obama chief strategist David Axelrod holds a press conference in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston "to discuss Mitt Romney's economic philosophy and his failed economic record in Massachusetts." He will be joined by local Democratic officials who were mayors or in the legislature when Romney was governor.

ma-policy-2.pdf Axelrod's Mitt/Massachusetts memo

But the ways campaigns work, if a rival can't have the last word....they can get the first.

10 a.m. Thursday: Mitt's team (his national campaign headquarters is in Boston, in case you did not know) holds a press conference on the front state of the Massachusetts State House with local GOP officials to "discuss Mitt Romney's record of job creation."

Meanwhile, at 2 p.m. today, the Republican National Committee is taking on the battleground Ohio assignment, with Ohio officials and Ohio State Treasurer and Senate candidate Josh Mandel holding a telephone conference call on why Obama policies are "hostile to job creators."

The Obama campaign released a 4:19 video slamming Romney on his job-creation claims: