The Super PAC backing Mitt Romney said it would launch a $7.6 million television ad sweep across nine states, Reuters reports.

The ads will begin airing Wednesday and run through the end of June in presidential battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The purchase ends weeks of silence from Restore Our Future, “the independent spending group that emerged as the deep-pocketed heavyweight that barraged Romney’s Republican competitors in the race to become their party’s nominee.”

Despite reports to the contrary, Mitt Romney told the media that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is being “thoroughly vetted as part of our process” to select a vice presidential running mate.

“Elephants are among my favorites, partly because I’m Republican and partly because I’m big. Elephants make me feel like I’m the right size.”

— Newt Gingrich, quoted by ABC News, in an interview at the National Zoo. He added, “They’re very smart animals.”

“I get a kick out of some of the speculation that goes on. I’m not going to comment on the process of course, but I can tell you this: only Beth Myers and I know who is being vetted.”

— Mitt Romney, quoted by NBC News, on his search for a vice presidential running mate.

A Project New America/Public Policy Polling survey in Arizona finds Mitt Romney just ahead of President Obama in the presidential race, 49% to 46%.

Mitt Romney has declined to call on his supporters to stop heckling President Obama’s campaign, the AP reports.

Romney said that he doesn’t believe in “unilateral disarmament,” but said it would “be a nice thing” if both sides would stop yelling at each other during campaign events. However, he noted that American politics has a “long history of heckling and free speech.”

The Week has four theories.

“An ill-timed leak to ABC News that Marco Rubio isn’t being vetted for the vice presidency has prompted head-scratching among the Florida Senator’s allies, coming as it does on the day his autobiography is released,” BuzzFeed reports.

Said Republican consultant Ana Navarro: “You better believe if he wasn’t already being vetted he’s going to get a call this week.”

John Avlon: “So why not include him on a short list? Perhaps the answer lies in Stuart Stevens, the Romney campaign’s epically interesting chief strategist. Stevens is a Mississippi maverick — a sometime author, libertine and extreme athlete. Most relevant to this instance, he also served as strategist for former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who Rubio trounced in a hotly contested 2010 election. Bad blood between warring camps doesn’t just fade away overnight, and in some cases it grows more malignant with time.”

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Colorado finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney by seven points in the presidential race, 49% to 42%.

“When you look at all of our Colorado polling this cycle here’s the big picture: Obama’s a definite favorite to win the state again this year, but it will probably be by a more moderate margin than in 2008.”