US Republicans trade barbs ahead of Florida debate

Gingrich and Romney Clash

JACKSONVILLE, Florida: Republican White House hopefuls Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich traded barbs over immigration and character on the eve of a debate Thursday before Florida’s ultra-competitive primary.

The frontrunners — locked in a virtual tie in the polls — spent Wednesday courting Latino voters and sniping at each other as they battled for the chance to take on Democratic President Barack Obama in the November election.

A new CNN poll suggested it was too close to call ahead of next Tuesday’s primary, with former Massachusetts governor Romney at 36 percent and former House speaker Gingrich at 34 percent after a series of wild swings.

Trailing them were former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum with 11 percent and Texas congressman Ron Paul on nine percent.

However, a Qunnipiac University poll found Romney tied with Obama at 45 percent in a general election match-up, bolstering the argument that Romney is the most electable Republican.

Gingrich — whom the same poll has trailing Obama 39 percent to 50 percent — has remained on the offensive ahead of the Florida contest, deriding Romney’s suggestion that tough government measures could force illegal immigrants to leave the country through “self-deportation.”

“For Romney to believe that somebody’s grandmother is going to be so cut off that she is going to self-deport, I mean this… is an Obama-level fantasy,” he told an event cosponsored by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Univision.

Immigration has been a politically fraught subject for both men.

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