Gingrich works to revive campaign in Fla.,
Ex-speaker sees poll plunge after barrage of ads
THE VILLAGES, Fla. — Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign may have left South Carolina with a full head of steam, but a difficult week in Florida has left the former House speaker seeking fresh energy two days before a crucial primary.
Gingrich spent the weekend trying to revive his campaign after a shaky debate performance last week and an avalanche of negative advertising from former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney sent his campaign reeling.
While the late endorsement of former rival Herman Cain offered a bright spot Saturday night, a new poll released Sunday by the Tampa Bay Times,
Miami Herald and Bay News 9 showed Romney leading Gingrich 42% to 31% — indicating Gingrich’s poll numbers had plunged just days before Tuesday’s Florida primary.
Despite those difficulties, Gingrich remained defiant on Sunday at a well-attended rally in a parking lot in The Villages, a retirement community of about 85,000 residents near Ocala. In his speech, he sought to harness the message of the anti-establishment, Tea Party movement.
“I know that all of you have seen all sorts of articles (that) the Washington establishment is coming unglued. When there were three consecutive polls this week that showed me leading by a significant margin nationally, they got even more unglued,” he said. “Well let me tell you, they should be. I am not running for president to manage the decay of the United States to the satisfaction of the establishment.”
While Gingrich spoke, Romney surrogates — who have been tailing Gingrich at campaign stops all week — handed out copies of The Villages news- paper that included a full-page Romney ad.
Gingrich supporters echoed his remarks and expressed their frustration that the ads were taking a toll on their candidate.
“My feeling is that the heavy advertising against Newt seems to be hurting the most — $10 million in 10 days in Florida?” said Carole Mccall, 73, a Realtor from Orlando. “When you’ve got that kind of money, money talks.”
Restore Our Future, a proRomney super PAC, has spent $10.7 million in Florida, while Winning our Future, a pro-gingrich super PAC, has spent $3.9 million, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Rhonda Glenn, who described herself as a Baby Boomer when asked her age, said the attacks on Gingrich’s character were not working.
“Don’t talk to me about this marriage or anything else; I just want somebody to fix” the country, said Glenn, manager of communications at United States Golf Association from Summerfield, Fla.
However, Glenn said Gingrich’s debate performance had more to do with his slip in the polls than the negative ads.
“Voters here don’t pay attention to ads. They are just ads, like for Campbell’s soup — ‘Our soup is better than Progresso,’ ” she said. “Sixty seconds of brow beating? Are you kidding me? This is a smarter group of voters than maybe we’ve ever had.”
Gloria Wist, a resident of The Villages and member of the TriCounty Tea Party who declined to give her age, said she would love to vote for former Penn- sylvania senator Rick Santorum but didn’t think he could win.
Wist said she hadn’t decided who to vote for on Tuesday and planned to spend the next few days researching to see which candidate was telling the truth.
Santorum, who is polling a distant third in Florida, canceled his appearances on Sunday after his daughter, Bella, was checked into a Philadelphia hospital. Bella, 3, suffers from a rare and life-threatening disorder known as Trisomy 18. Santorum said Sunday evening that she has pneumonia but is recovering.
Members of the Duggar family, of the TLC reality TV show 19
Kids and Counting, campaigned with Santorum’s daughter Elizabeth in his place on Sunday.
Romney, who will return to The Villages for a rally today, continued to rack up endorsements including that of Puerto Rico’s Republican governor, Luis Fortuño, on Friday.
The Tampa Bay Times’ poll showed Romney with a 24 percentage point lead over Gingrich among Hispanics in Florida.
Flora Reece, a commercial real estate broker from Orlando, said Gingrich would be fine in the long run because many Florida voters have already cast their ballots and that the polls were likely skewed against him.
“I think with all this money you have the establishments going out and polling only Romney people so it makes it look like he’s going down, but I don’t think so,” she said.