Gingrich

With Florida victory, Romney is the man to beat (Reuters)

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TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) ? Mitt Romney’s victory in Florida’s Republican presidential primary has made him the man to beat in the race for the party’s nomination to challenge President Barack Obama, and February may prove fruitful for him as the race shifts on Wednesday to Nevada.

After pounding his nearest rival Newt Gingrich with negative advertisements, Romney rolled to an impressive triumph on Tuesday night in Florida, winning 46 percent of the vote to Gingrich’s 32 percent in a key battleground state.

The next contest in the state-by-state battle for the Republican nomination to face Obama, a Democrat, in the November 6 U.S. election is in Nevada, which holds caucuses on Saturday. That is followed next Tuesday by caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota and a primary in Missouri.

Gingrich and Romney will be in Nevada on Wednesday.

The well-organized and well-financed Romney has now won two of the first four contests, also capturing New Hampshire while coming in second in Iowa and South Carolina.

Romney’s win in Florida got his campaign back on track after the staggering loss to Gingrich in South Carolina 10 days earlier. But with Gingrich vowing to fight on for months, the race remains far from over.

This means there is the potential for a lengthy, divisive battle that could damage the party’s chances of denying Obama re-election in November.

Romney may face questions about the negative tactics he has used to dispatch Gingrich. Florida media were awash with millions of dollars in ads that focused on Gingrich’s ethical troubles while speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1990s and questioning his conservative bonafides.

Gingrich’s ads were equally negative against Romney. He just got outspent.

Romney hopes the seven state contests in February will cement his status as the runaway front-runner and make Gingrich a non-factor.

In his victory speech in Tampa on Tuesday, Romney held his fire against his Republican rivals. Instead, he took aim at Obama. Romney stressed his belief that he can turn around the U.S. economy based on his experience as a private equity executive and former governor of Massachusetts.

“President Obama wants to grow government and continue to amass trillion dollar deficits. I will not just slow the growth of government, I will cut it. I will not just freeze government’s share of the total economy, I will reduce it. And without raising taxes, I will finally balance the budget,” he said.

A bruised and battered Gingrich aims to ride out February and hang on until March when the Southern states he wants to win come into play. He needs to raise money and build a better organization. If the Florida outcome is any indication, he faces a hard fight ahead.

“It is now clear that this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader, Newt Gingrich, and the Massachusetts moderate,” Gingrich said on Tuesday night.

Former U.S. senator Rick Santorum, who won in Iowa, came in third in Florida, followed by U.S. congressman Ron Paul.

(Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120201/ts_nm/us_usa_campaign

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Romney not taking any chances ahead of Fla. vote (AP)

Feb 1st, 2012

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POMPANO BEACH, Fla. ? Mitt Romney isn’t taking any chances.

A day before voting begins in Florida’s Republican primary, Romney is running ahead of rival Newt Gingrich in polls. The former Massachusetts governor earned positive reviews during two debates. And Romney has put the former House speaker on the defensive over ethics and Freddie Mac.

“It’s only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all,” Gingrich is complaining.

But instead of stepping back and refocusing on President Barack Obama ? as he did in Iowa when it became clear that Gingrich had lost ? Romney is ratcheting up his rhetoric and continuing his attacks until the very end. He hopes to close the Florida campaign strongly to push Gingrich as far back as possible.

“His record is one of failed leadership,” Romney said of Gingrich Sunday night at a rally in Pompano Beach, in South Florida. And Romney challenged Gingrich to “look in the mirror” to figure out why the former House speaker has fallen back in Florida.

“His record is one of failed leadership. We don’t need someone who can speak well perhaps or can say things we agree with, but does not have the experience of being an effective leader,” he said.

Aides say Romney’s attacks are partially a response to increasingly angry rhetoric from Gingrich, who on Sunday called the former Massachusetts governor “somebody who is a pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase liberal.” Gingrich also accused Romney of lying. “I don’t know how you debate a person with civility if they’re prepared to say things that are just plain factually false,” Gingrich said.

Romney’s campaign on Sunday fired back immediately, starting with the candidate and continuing with statements from top surrogates who cast Gingrich’s assault as an unfair attack on Romney’s character.

“Mitt Romney is man of impeccable character,” said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. “It offends me that Newt Gingrich would attack the character of Mitt Romney.”

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty called the attacks “over the line.”

Romney’s supporters particularly defended his anti-abortion credentials following Gingrich’s attack. Gingrich allies are also running radio ads attacking Romney’s record on the issue.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi called Romney a “champion for pro-life values” as she introduced him at the rally. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen offered a similar defense during an earlier rally with the Cuban American community in Hialeah.

In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, who just last weekend was staggered by Gingrich’s victory in South Carolina. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of that state’s caucuses next Saturday, illustrating the challenges ahead for Gingrich, who has pledged to push ahead no matter what happens in Florida.

An NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.

To hang onto his lead, Romney continued to paint Gingrich as part of the very Washington establishment he condemns and someone who had a role in the nation’s economic problems.

“Your problem in Florida is that you worked for Freddie Mac at a time when Freddie Mac was not doing the right thing for the American people, and that you’re selling influence in Washington at a time when we need people who will stand up for the truth in Washington,” Romney told an audience in Naples.

Gingrich’s consulting firm was paid more than $1.5 million by the federally-backed mortgage company over a period after he left Congress in 1999.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, skipped campaigning to be with his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, who was hospitalized. He planned to campaign in Missouri and Minnesota early this week.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has invested little in Florida, looked ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it’s less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.

The intense effort by Romney to slow Gingrich is comparable to his strategy against Gingrich in the closing month before Iowa’s leadoff caucuses Jan. 3. Gingrich led in Iowa polls, lifted by what were hailed as strong performances in televised debates. But his support dropped in the face of withering attacks by Romney, aided immensely by ads sponsored by a “super” political action committee run by former Romney aides.

But Romney aides say they made the mistake of assuming Gingrich could not rise again as he did in South Carolina. Romney appears determined not to let that happen again.

Romney has three events scheduled across the state Monday. He planned events in Jacksonville and the Tampa area. Gingrich has five planned events.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Time short for Gingrich to close gap in Florida

Jan 31st, 2012

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Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, watches Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on television as he rides his campaign bus with his brother Scott, and sister-in-law Sheri, to Hialeah, Fla., after campaigning in Naples, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaks to media during a news conference outside the Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, rides in his campaign bus with his grandson Parker, 5, as they drive from Naples, Fla., to Hialeah, Fla., to continue campaigning Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Jameson Williams, 2, of Sarasota, holds a sign outside a scheduled campaign event for Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in Sarasota, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Santorum is staying home in Philadelphia to be with his 3-year-old hospitalized daughter Isabella, and is canceling campaign stops in Florida. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

MIAMI (AP) ? Newt Gingrich slammed GOP rival Mitt Romney on Sunday for the steady stream of attacks he likened to “carpet-bombing,” trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner’s lead in Florida in the dwindling hours before Tuesday’s pivotal presidential primary.

Surging ahead in polls, Romney kept the pressure on Gingrich with a dominant advertising presence that questioned the former House speaker’s leadership and ethics. During campaign stops, Romney divided his focus between Gingrich and President Barack Obama.

In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, staggered last weekend by Gingrich’s victory in South Carolina. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of that state’s caucuses next Saturday, illustrating the challenges ahead for Gingrich, who has pledged to push ahead no matter what happens in Florida.

Romney’s campaign has dogged Gingrich at his own campaign stops, sending surrogates to remind reporters of Gingrich’s House ethics probe in the 1990s and other episodes in his career.

Gingrich reacted defensively, accusing the former Massachusetts governor and a political committee that supports him of lying, and the GOP’s establishment of allowing it.

“I don’t know how you debate a person with civility if they’re prepared to say things that are just plain factually false,” Gingrich said during appearances on Sunday talk shows. “I think the Republican establishment believes it’s OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order.”

Gingrich objected specifically to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House’s decision to discipline Gingrich, then speaker, for ethics charges.

After hounding Gingrich during two debates last week, Romney returned more of his attention to Obama, who had been Romney’s chief target as he tried to make the case that he was the most worthy Republican to challenge the Democratic incumbent.

But Romney didn’t relent in swiping at Gingrich, even as an NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.

“He’s now finding excuses … complaining about what he thinks were the reasons he thinks he’s had difficulty here in Florida. But you know, we’ve got a president who has a lot of excuses,” Romney said at a rally in Naples. “And the excuses are over, it’s time to produce.”

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, stayed in his home state, where his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, was hospitalized. She has a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. Aides said he would resume campaigning as soon as possible.

The race began moving toward a two-person fight in South Carolina, and has grown more bitter and personal in Florida.

The intense effort by Romney to slow Gingrich is comparable his strategy against Gingrich in the closing month before Iowa’s leadoff caucuses Jan. 3.

Gingrich led in Iowa polls, lifted by what were hailed as strong performances in televised debates, only to drop in the face of withering attacks by Romney, aided immensely by ads sponsored by a political committee run by former Romney aides.

In Florida, senior Romney aides have popped up at Gingrich events to question Gingrich’s conservative credentials. Led by Romney’s top Iowa adviser, David Kochel, Romney’s team cites Gingrich’s criticism of House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan’s Medicare overhaul plan last year, and his appearance with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in an advertisement supporting climate-change legislation.

“That kind of language emboldens the critics of conservatism,” Kochel said. “We’re out pointing that out correcting the record.”

Gingrich has responded by criticizing Romney’s conservative credentials. Outside an evangelical Christian church in Lutz, Gingrich said he was the more loyal conservative on key social issues.

“This party is not going to nominate somebody who is a pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax increase liberal,” Gingrich said. “It isn’t going to happen.”

But Gingrich, in appearances on Sunday news programs, returned to complaining about Romney’s tactics, rather than emphasizing his own message as that of a conservative with a record of action in Congress.

“When we get to a positive idea campaign, I consistently win,” Gingrich said. “It’s only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all.”

Romney and the political committee that supports him had combined to spend some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in the Florida campaign’s final week. Gingrich and a group that supports him were spending about one-third that amount.

Gingrich worked to portray himself as the insurgent outsider, collecting the endorsement of tea party favorite Herman Cain, whose own campaign for president foundered amid sexual harassment allegations.

It was unclear how aggressively Gingrich would be able to compete in states beyond Florida. The next televised debate, a format Gingrich has used to his advantage, is not until Feb. 22, more than three weeks away.

Romney already has campaigned in Nevada more than Gingrich, is advertising there, and stresses his business background in a state hard-hit by the economy. His campaign welcomed the Sunday endorsement of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada’s largest newspaper.

Michigan and Maine, states where Romney is well-positioned also hold their contests in February. Arizona, a strong tea-party state where Gingrich could do well, has its primary Feb. 28.

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Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Naples and Shannon McCaffrey in Lutz contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-29-US-GOP-Campaign/id-8fe4b9215e2041ccbabcc2e69ca1f7cf

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Ex-wife says Gingrich wanted ‘open marriage’ (The Arizona Republic)

Jan 21st, 2012

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Romney rivals seek SC theme, champion to stop him (AP)

Jan 17th, 2012

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CHARLESTON, S.C. ? With a week left to halt Mitt Romney from sweeping to a third straight victory, his GOP rivals are struggling in South Carolina for a theme, momentum and most crucially, one strong challenger to consolidate conservatives’ misgivings about the front-runner.

The dynamics that lifted Romney to wins in Iowa and New Hampshire seem to be working for him here, even though South Carolina is often described as too evangelical and culturally southern for his background.

In some ways, the former Massachusetts governor is lucky, benefitting from a fractured opposition that has divided the anti-Romney vote for months. In other ways he is benefiting from shrewd and well-organized supporters. He uses TV ads to shore up his weaknesses and to batter the rivals he sees as most threatening.

In Iowa, the target was former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who plummeted under the barrage. In South Carolina, it’s former Sen. Rick Santorum, a longtime champion of home-schooling, anti-abortion efforts and other social conservative causes.

Santorum nearly won the Iowa caucus, and some consider him the best bet for unifying the anti-Romney vote.

But a private group that supports Romney is pounding Santorum in South Carolina with TV ads and mailings. So is Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning candidate who helped attack Gingrich in Iowa.

Paul’s ads are especially harsh. They vilify Santorum for pushing pork-barrel projects as a Pennsylvania senator, and they portray him as an insincere conservative.

A group of social conservative leaders meeting in Texas voted Saturday to recommend Santorum as the Romney alternative. But a portion of them preferred Gingrich, who denied Santorum a two-thirds majority on their first head-to-head ballot, said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

Perkins said the group’s actions did not constitute an endorsement, adding that some participants will remain Gingrich supporters. He declined to say how he voted.

“Santorum was the preferred candidate by a significant majority,” former presidential candidate Gary Bauer told The Associated Press by telephone from Texas. “They were all looking for the best Reagan conservative,” he said. “It came down to things like, who do you most trust.”

The Texas vote is obviously good news for Santorum. But it’s unclear how much impact it will have in South Carolina’s primary on Saturday.

The state is known for campaign surprises, and there’s still time for twists and turns. Undercurrents of anti-Romney sentiment, perhaps fueled by his Mormonism, could be stronger than they seem.

But on the surface, at least, Romney is well-positioned with a week to go. If he wins South Carolina, only a seismic change in the campaign will keep him from becoming the nominee.

The next primary, on Jan. 31, is in Florida, a sprawling and expensive state where Romney’s superior money and organization could essentially put the matter to rest, kicking off the general election against President Barack Obama.

“Romney is in good shape now, but the race is tightening,” said LaDonna Ryggs, Spartanburg County GOP chairwoman.

There is little evidence that a barrage of ads depicting Romney as a heartless corporate raider is having much effect. He is airing a counter-ad defending his record at Bain Capital, which sometimes created jobs, and sometimes reduced them, when it restructured dozens of companies in the 1980s and `90s.

“That’s what his job was, and he did it well,” said Carleen Coffey, 51, who defended Romney even as she attended an event for Texas Gov. Rick Perry in Charleston.

The anti-Romney ad, aired by a group supporting Gingrich, has generated much comment in political and media circles. Many conservative leaders have condemned it, and Gingrich later back-pedaled, questioning the accuracy of the anti-Romney documentary film behind it.

For ordinary South Carolina Republicans, however, the ad risks being lost in an avalanche of TV commercials, which many voters say they ignore. Romney’s campaign events run like clockwork, while his opponents often suffer glitches and modest crowds. Gingrich, in particular, has left people scratching their heads.

He spoke at a home-ownership rally Thursday in Columbia that appeared to be dominated by Democratic speakers and attendees. Gingrich got a big introduction at a GOP barbecue Friday in Duncan, but he inexplicably didn’t show up for many minutes. Santorum jumped into the void, working the room and getting valuable one-on-one time with voters.

Then on Saturday, Gingrich’s scheduled telephone conference with voters never took place. The dial-in number was invalid.

Perry has faded. Once seen having a good chance to beat Romney in South Carolina, the drawling Texan is drawing small crowds at cafes and restaurants. Saturday morning in Mount Pleasant, about half the people at Page’s Okra Grill didn’t bother to stop eating or talking while Perry spoke in a corner.

The TV attack ads in South Carolina skip Perry. It’s a sign of his perceived insignificance, although he could benefit if the others slice each other up.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is getting even less attention.

Some people think Santorum is rising, but the attack ads might slow him. Santorum’s boyish looks have always boosted his image as a principled crusader for unborn children and other causes. But the ads being aired by Paul’s campaign and the pro-Romney group depict him as a conniving, old-fashioned politician who grabbed federal money for his state whenever possible.

“Some people are going to be swayed,” said Alexia Newman, a South Carolina GOP activist and Santorum supporter. “If you know about his records, you know the ads are false,” she said. But that requires Santorum to break through the noise and clutter of political commercials flooding the airwaves.

The pro-Romney PAC, Restore Our Future, is running $1 million in ads in the state this week, and more than $800,000 next week. Not all of them target Santorum, however. Santorum’s campaign and a PAC that backs him are running pro-Santorum ads.

No single issue is dominating the primary. That makes it harder for any one Romney opponent to catch fire.

Religion and the military play bigger roles here than in Iowa, and especially New Hampshire. Romney has worked hard to address both.

He has built several events around military service, starting with his Veterans’ Day trip to South Carolina last November. He has been campaigning lately with Sen. John McCain, the 2008 presidential nominee and Vietnam War hero.

As for religion, Romney has tried to portray himself as a moral and faithful man, without going into details of Mormonism. On Friday, a woman in Hilton Head asked him, “Do you believe in the divine saving grace of Jesus Christ?”

“Yes, I do,” Romney replied, adding: “Our nation was founded on the principle…of religious tolerance and liberty in this land, and so we welcome people of other faiths.”

Romney’s campaign has produced a Web ad in which an anti-abortion activist endorses him. Romney supported abortion rights as Massachusetts governor.

Romney’s main worries might involve currents he can’t see. South Carolina has a reputation for dirty campaign tricks, although many Republicans here say it’s mostly a thing of the past.

Whatever the case, an anonymous group has sent a text message purporting to be a Romney campaign item. But callers hear Romney being criticized on abortion.

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Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Jim Davenport, Kasie Hunt and Philip Elliott contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120115/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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