While on the ground in New Hampshire, Phil sent me a response from Mitt Romney’s campaign to his Rudy Giuliani column on today’s main site. Specifically, the Romneyites dispute Giuliani’s assertion that “[v]iolent crime went up… while he was governor.” They cite FBI statistics showing a decrease in violent crime of over 7 percent.

The Media Research Center’s Newsbuster blog has also disputed Giuliani’s numbers, pointing to a 7.8 percent reduction in Massachusetts’ overall violent crime rate between 2002 and 2006. Additionally, they contend aggravated assault decreased by 14.8 percent during Romney’s term. Newsbuster’s Howard Nemerov concludes, “No matter the comparison — total incidents or rates per 100,000 population — Giuliani was wrong to state that Massachusetts saw a violent crime increase while Romney was governor.”