Politics

Spotlight on Florida: GOP visits converge

A busy campaign day could be a sign that the state is gaining status in the presidential race.

By JENNIFER LIBERTO and JOHN FRANK
Published July 8, 2007

The Republican Party's top two presidential contenders spent Saturday chatting with Floridians in a pair of like-styled town hall meetings on the state's east coast.

But they could just as easily have been in Iowa.

Touting the Republican boilerplate of tax cuts, antiterrorism measures and everything Ronald Reagan, neither Rudy Giuliani in Jacksonville nor Mitt Romney in West Palm Beach made mention of the Sunshine State.

No word on its rocky real estate market, its property tax turmoil, the property insurance crisis. No one mentioned hurricanes.

Still, the Florida-centric day - former New York Mayor Giuliani also stopped in Orlando and Daytona and former Massachusetts Gov. Romney stopped in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood - could be a sign that Florida is about to move up on the presidential campaign agenda.

Most top contenders for both parties have visited Florida periodically this year, but more often than not those events have been closed-door fundraisers. After Florida moved its presidential primary vote from March to Jan. 29 in hopes of playing a larger role in the selection process, the calendar revision didn't trigger an immediate influx of candidates.

But Saturday was unusually busy, with Giuliani, Romney and even Fred Thompson, an actor and former senator who has yet to officially enter the race. Thompson spoke to a convention of Young Republicans in Hollywood.

While the GOP candidates share the burden of trying to follow an unpopular sitting president from their party and national fundraising figures lag behind Democrats, Republican candidates have been warmly received in Florida.

That said, Floridians lobbed tough questions at both candidates Saturday. Romney was asked about embryonic stem-cell research, which he opposes. Giuliani was heckled when he said he didn't favor replacing the income tax with a national sales tax.

During Giuliani's standing-room-only town hall meeting at the University of North Florida, a few dozen audience members with a group called Americans for Fair Taxation interrupted him with jeers and boos. Giuliani explained that he thought radical change of the nation's tax system would be tough, and he called a consumption tax regressive.

"You know, this is actually not something to get angry about. This is a discussion of economic policy, " he said to a shouting audience member, who wore a T-shirt with the words "income tax" crossed out. "The reality is I have real questions about whether it would be a realistic transition. It would be a lot easier for me just to promise it to you, and you'd all applaud for me. But I don't operate that way."

Giuliani had an easy manner with the crowd and won people over with his deft diffusing of the antitax group. But he's no Gov. Charlie Crist: While taking questions or signing autographs afterward he didn't ask a single person his or her name.

Giuliani wore a light gray suit and light blue shirt, with his signature American flag lapel pin. He stuck out in a crowd of about 500, most dressed for Florida summer in T-shirts and tennis shoes.

He took about five questions during the hourlong forum and most were about foreign policy. He used that focus to put the fight against terrorism in the context of America's history at war, and he talked about the war in Iraq.

Although polls show most Americans have grown weary of Iraq, the Jacksonville crowd appeared receptive to Giuliani's insistence that the United States not pull out too quickly.

"If you give in to the tremendous movement right now (to pull out) it will take away some of the pain right now, " he said, "but it means the losses we'll have two and three years from now will be significantly greater."

Giuliani's star power rocked the room at the beginning. He ran onto a stage full of seated people, many of whom had arrived an hour before it started, without pausing to shake hands. The roaring crowd quickly fell silent while he talked about his fiscal-responsibility measures as mayor and his proposal to eliminate the tax on estate holdings.

"I agree with him about 80 percent of the time, and I'd rather have that than a candidate I agree with 10 percent of the time, " said Angelo D'Amico, a 60-year-old Republican real estate investor from Jacksonville who brought his son Mike, 10, to the speech. "He's an honest man and a leader."

In Romney's "Ask Mitt Anything" forum in a banquet room at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, he took 13 questions about, well, anything.

At one point, Romney was chided about his wardrobe, which consisted of dark dress pants, a white dress shirt - no jacket and sleeves rolled twice - and a pink tie. One man rose from the audience, raised a convoluted issue with the Social Security system and then said flatly: "I wish you'd worn a different tie."

A few in the crowd of 75 to 100 laughed, but Romney ignored - or perhaps didn't hear - the comment.

The questions ranged from the standard (Does he think the Iraq troop surge is working? Answer: too early to tell) to the random (Should the United States teach Chinese in schools? Answer: possibly).

Romney didn't touch on Florida issues, except when asked about possible vice presidential candidates.

Surprised by the question, he called it "a bit presumptuous" before dropping a few names the crowd wanted to hear. "You can think of a number of people in Florida who would fall on that list, from your governor to your former governor to your senator, " he said.

Romney often dodged direct responses, acknowledging multiple times, "I don't have an answer for you."

But the 60-year-old former venture capitalist was quick-thinking, smart-talking and good-looking enough to recover.

Standing upright, he holds the microphone continuously in his right hand, positioned just below his sternum. His left hand does the talking, always moving and often ticking off ideas from his pinkie to his thumb.

When Romney's stumped, he pauses. Just for a moment. He looks at his shoes, then returns eye contact as the well-rehearsed lines come back to mind.

He was smooth, albeit a bit programmed.

For instance, he used the Chinese language question to rattle on for 3 1/2 minutes about improving teacher pay and implementing high testing standards, which he says align with his education accomplishments during his one term as governor.

For Chris George, a Republican entrepreneur from Delray Beach, a polished candidate is just what he was looking for. "My feeling is that he doesn't rattle anything off the cuff, " said George, who wore a vintage "Buy War Bonds" shirt. "He has, it seems, encyclopedic knowledge."

George, like many others in the crowd, had two candidates on their mind as they listened: Romney and Giuliani.

The hourlong event was enough to settle the debate in the mind of Carlyn Rykse, 46, of Atlantis. "I think he's got my vote, " the medical industry consultant said of Romney. "I was kind of on the fence."

Her main complaint about Giuliani: "He is much more vague on his morals and ethics."

[Last modified July 8, 2007, 00:53:27]