Romney surges to double-digit lead in Florida

In the Catbird Seat?

Romney surges to double-digit lead in Florida
By Andrew Beatty (AFP) – Jan 30, 2012

FORT MYERS, Florida — Mitt Romney stormed Monday towards a likely Florida primary victory that would all but lock up the Republican presidential nomination, as rival Newt Gingrich promised a bitter fight all the way to the August convention. Polls showed Romney pulling clear in the Sunshine State for Tuesday’s primary after his campaign went on the offensive, unleashing blistering ads that painted Gingrich as unethical and not fit for office.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and millionaire venture capitalist, was leading Gingrich by 15 points in Florida, 42 percent to 27 percent, according to an NBC/Marist poll. A Miami Herald poll showed the former House speaker behind by 11 points. Hoping to finish off his rival, Romney renewed his assault before a crowd of several hundred supporters in an affluent Naples shopping center Sunday.

“The reason that speaker Gingrich has been having a hard time in Florida is that people of Florida have watched the debates, have listened to the speaker, have listened to the other candidates and have said, ‘You know what, Mitt Romney’s the guy we’re going to support,'” he said. Despite the polls, Gingrich said he expected a close race in Florida, which will be a key battleground in the November election, pitting President Barack Obama, a Democrat, against the eventual Republican nominee.

After attending church services in the community of Fort Myers north of Tampa, a fiery Gingrich insisted “the election will be substantially closer than the two polls” suggest. With time running out for Gingrich to claw back lost ground in Florida, he turned to the national fight. “We will go all the way to the convention, and I believe the Republican Party will not nominate a pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase moderate from Massachusetts,” Gingrich said.

Romney, who has switched positions on abortion and is now pro-life, has had to fend off lingering doubts over his conservative credentials dating back to his time as governor of Massachusetts. Gingrich, 68, shocked the party establishment when he thumped Romney, 64, in South Carolina earlier this month, but his support has been sinking fast in Florida and his opponent now appears to be the one with all the momentum.

A crucial role is being played by conservative former senator Rick Santorum, who won the first state of Iowa but whose campaign has been flagging since. Gingrich insisted that the only reason he trailed the more moderate Romney was because of his rival’s “relentlessly negative campaign” and because Santorum, by staying in the race, was splitting the conservative vote.

“The fact is, when you combine the Santorum vote and the Gingrich vote… the conservative combined would clearly beat Romney,” he told ABC talk show “This Week.” Gingrich’s campaign got a weekend boost when he won an endorsement from former rival Herman Cain. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, a favorite of the ultra-conservative Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, also weighed in, telling supporters to “Vote for Newt” in Florida.

Gingrich has sought to rally support by showcasing his conservative credentials, arguing that only a true conservative like himself has a chance of beating Obama. “We nominated a moderate in ’96 and we lost,” he said Saturday in Orlando. “We nominated a moderate in 2008 and we lost. Only a solid conservative can debate Barack Obama and win.”

But a new USA Today/Gallup poll made public Monday indicated that Gingrich’s nomination could be prescription for a Republican defeat in November. In a matchup with Obama in the most closely contested states, Gingrich would lose 40 percent to 54 percent, according to the survey. The same poll found that Obama and Romney were virtually tied in many of the key swing states that ultimately will decide the outcome of the November general election.

The poll of the dozen battleground states had Obama and Romney virtually tied in a head-to-head race, with Romney leading statistically insignificant percentage point, 48 percent to 47 percent. The 12 closely contested battleground states in the poll were Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Meanwhile Santorum veered off the campaign trail on Sunday, and spent the day in Pennsylvania where his three-year-old daughter Bella was admitted to a Philadelphia children’s hospital.

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