Romney Pulls Ahead in Florida
After falling behind Newt Gingrich following the South Carolina primary last week, Mitt Romney has regained a comfortable lead in Florida. Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary last Saturday and the polls that were released the following Sunday showed Gingrich with a nine point lead over Romney in the Sunshine State. Since then, Romney has slowly recovered and now has a comfortable lead, with many polls showing him up double-digits.
Romney’s quick recovery could be attributed to his clear monetary and organizational advantage over Gingrich and the other candidates. Florida is a large and diverse state and Romney was best equipped to reach out to all Floridians. Romney outspent Gingrich almost 5-1 in Florida, which gave Romney a huge advantage right from the start.
Another reason for Romney’s rise may be the two debates that took place in Florida this week. Although none of the candidates had exceptional debates this past week, Gingrich was unable to recreate the debate moments that helped him so much in South Carolina.
Gingrich Down but Not Out?
Although Newt Gingrich’s momentum coming off his South Carolina success didn’t last more than a few days, Gingrich is still arguing that the GOP presidential primary is anything but over.
“[Romney’s] not going to be anywhere near a majority by April… and so this is going to go on all the way to the convention,” Gingrich said Sunday.
Since it became clear that Romney is most likely going to take Florida, Gingrich and his campaign have been playing down the importance of winning the Sunshine State. Members of Newt’s camp have compared Gingrich South Carolina victory to the victory Romney will have in Florida on Tuesday.
As for the other candidates, Rick Santorum has left Florida, most likely due to the fact that there is a huge deficit in the polls between him and the frontrunners, and headed west to start campaigning in some of the February primary states, such as Nevada, Colorado, Missouri and Arizona. Despite no inclination from the Santorum campaign that they may be dropping out soon, Gingrich hinted Sunday that Santorum should drop out in order to help himself.
Ron Paul is also still in the race and will be for a while judging on his 2008 campaign, in which he stayed in the GOP primary even after McCain had secured the nomination. Unfortunately for Paul, the media doesn’t take his campaign seriously and he won’t be a huge factor, despite finishing second in New Hampshire and third in Iowa.
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