Report: Romney Packed Univision Forum With Fans

By Alex Weprin 

Viewers of the two Univision forums may have noticed the staunchly different tones. The interview of President Obama was relatively sedated, with a quiet crowd, both during the questions and answers. The Romney interview, on the hand, featured a crowd that would burst into cheers when the candidate answered, and booed the moderators when they asked a tough question.

It wasn’t a coincidence, according to BuzzFeed: While the Obama forum was comprised mostly of students, who won tickets through a lottery, the Romney interview featured a slew of Romney supporters, bused in from across Florida.

Salinas told BuzzFeed that tickets for each forum were divided between the network, the respective campaigns, and the University of Miami (which hosted the events) — and she said both campaigns initially agreed to keep the audience comprised mostly of students, in keeping with the events’ education theme.

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But after exhausting the few conservative groups on campus, the Romney camp realized there weren’t enough sympathetic students to fill the stands on their night — so they told the network and university that if they weren’t given an exemption to the students-only rule, they might have to “reschedule.”
The organizers relented…

In any case, Romney’s team was allowed to bus in rowdy activists from around southern Florida in order to fill the extra seats at their town hall.

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