Gillespie: Undecided Voters Will Win Race for Romney

Mitt Romney’s top campaign strategist, Ed Gillespie told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos this morning on “This Week” that undecided voters will turn the tide for his candidate on Tuesday.

Gillespie said President Barack Obama campaign’s assumption, as the candidates head into Election Day in nearly a dead heat, “seems to be that these undecided voters aren't going to turn out and that they, therefore, prevail because of their superior ground game versus ours...when I look at the undecideds, I believe that Governor Romney will not only win on Tuesday, I believe he could win decisively.”

But Gillespie disagreed with Obama campaign advisor David Plouffe, who also appeared on the Sunday show, when he said the Obama campaign is in a strong position in Ohio, Iowa and Wisconsin, but the Romney campaign is playing defense in Virginia and Florida and is making a “desperate ploy” in Pennsylvania.

Stephanopoulos pointed out the president has a lead in many states, including a steady lead in some of the key battlegrounds, and asked Gillespie if he believes the state polls have a statistical bias.

“There was a poll in Virginia, as you know, my home state, that had the president winning by 2 percentage points -- I think it was 47-45 -- and Governor Romney winning the independent vote by 21 percentage points,” replied Gillespie. “Now, I can tell you, George, if Governor Romney wins independents in Virginia by 21 percentage points on Tuesday, he will not lose to President Obama by 2 percentage points.”

Gillespie, in response to questions about Obama’s handling of the Hurricane Sandy crisis, said the governor is focused on and is asking supporters to help those in need, and the campaign is keeping the storm victims in its thoughts and prayers, but didn’t say if Romney has any problems with Obama’s response.

And Gillespie didn’t say if he agrees with former Bush spokesman Karl Rove that Obama’s response to the storm has helped him politically this week.

“We're very focused on highlighting the difference in this election,” Gillespie said. “Governor Romney is closing very strong, with a big speech about the differences that would happen in the next four years.”