Ex-governor Romney regains lead as Florida Republicans vote
TAMPA, Florida: Mitt Romney was poised to retake the lead in the Republican White House race as polls in Florida opened on Tuesday after days of brutal campaigning, in which he pounded chief rival Newt Gingrich.
A big win in the Sunshine State would propel Romney, a multimillionaire and former governor of Massachusetts, back into the lead after a heavy loss to Gingrich in South Carolina that set off an avalanche of negative campaigning.
The two men have waged an increasingly bitter and personal battle over Florida, the largest state yet to vote in the race to select a candidate to face Democratic President Barack Obama in the November presidential elections.
A relaxed Romney kept his boot on the former House Speaker’s neck on Monday, belittling his rival’s attacks as “painfully revealing” and, in a sign of growing confidence, canceling a final campaign event set for Tuesday.
“I tell you, with a turnout like this I’m beginning to believe that we might win tomorrow,” Romney told a large crowd in Dunedin on Monday, before training his sights on Gingrich, who has slipped in the polls after winning South Carolina.
“I know the Speaker is not real happy. Speaker Gingrich, he’s not feeling very excited these days,” he said to cries of mock sympathy from the crowd.
“I know, it’s sad,” Romney added. “He’s been flailing around a bit try- ing to go after me for one thing or the other. You just watch it and you shake your head. It’s been kind of painfully revealing.”
Romney began to pull clear in Florida after a solid debate performance on Thursday last week, an advantage that was pressed home by a trove of blistering ads that painted Gingrich as unethical and unfit for office.
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Gingrich by 13 points, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.
Crushing blow
According to a Suffolk University/ 7NEWS poll released on Monday, the gap may be as much as 20 points, a crushing blow to Gingrich’s campaign.
But the former lawmaker from Georgia has hit back, accusing Rom- ney—a former venture capitalist and one of the wealthiest individuals ever to seek the presidency—of trying to spend his way to the White House.
“Money power cannot buy people power. People power depends on conservatism and we are going to take back our country,” he said in Tampa, joined by former candidate Herman Cain, a favorite of ultra-conservative Tea Party activists.
Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska has also weighed in for Gingrich, telling supporters to “Vote for Newt” in Florida to keep the contest going.
Despite the surveys, Gingrich said that he expected a close race in Florida—which will be a key battleground in the November elections—and has vowed to fight on in the state-by-state battle all the way to the convention in August.
Gingrich spokesman RC Hammond told Agence France- Presse that there was no truth to suggestions that he would skip upcoming battles in Nevada and Michigan, where Romney is expected to do well.
“Our capacity to tell the truth about Romney’s record is limitless. We will challenge Mitt Romney and his lies in every state, in every contest,” he said.
Sixty-eight-year-old Gingrich shocked the party establishment when he thumped 64- year- old Romney in South Carolina earlier this month, but his support has been sinking fast in Florida and his opponent now appears to have all the momentum.
With seven states voting in the next four weeks, Romney’s vast war chest and deep political organization could come to the fore as the candidates battle on multiple fronts.
Romney won five of those seven states in 2008, despite losing the eventual nomination to Sen. John Mccain of Arizona.
The next vote will take place in Nevada on Saturday.