Candidates prep for debates while No. 2s campaign

[October 02, 2012]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The presidential candidates are leaving the heavy lifting of campaigning to their running mates Tuesday as they spend one more day preparing for their first debate, scheduled for Wednesday night.

President Barack Obama is in Henderson, Nev., for a strategy run-through ahead of the debate in Denver. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is set to spend most of Tuesday in debate prep at a Denver hotel.

"In my view it's not so much winning and losing or even the people themselves, the president and myself -- it's about something bigger than that," Romney told a cheering crowd of thousands at a rally Monday night.

He also told supporters he would get America working again. "Jobs is job one under my administration," Romney said, debuting a new line midway through his standard campaign speech.

Both candidates reached out to Hispanic voters, a growing constituency in Colorado.

The White House said Monday that Obama will designate the home of labor leader Cesar Chavez as a national monument during a campaign swing through California next week.

Romney brought up immigration in an interview published Tuesday by The Denver Post, saying he would honor temporary work permits for young illegal immigrants who were allowed to stay in the U.S. because of an executive order signed this summer by Obama.

In Iowa on Tuesday, Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, is set to visit three towns during a bus tour. The Wisconsin congressman will be in Clinton, Muscatine and Burlington.

Vice President Joe Biden has two campaign events scheduled in another swing state, North Carolina. He'll be in Charlotte and Asheville.

[Associated Press]

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