Romney renews push in Florida
The re-energized Republican increases staff and advertising.
By JOHN FRANK, Times Staff Writer
Published January 17, 2008
Revived by his must-win victory in Michigan, Republican Mitt Romney took his campaign to South Carolina but launched a significant new effort in Florida.
"Florida looks wide open," Romney told reporters Wednesday at an event in Bluffton, S.C. "Instead of being the fire wall for the (Rudy) Giuliani campaign, it's going to be a real contest."
With that in mind, the Romney campaign announced that it is resuming television advertising across much of the state today after a week of being off the air. The number of paid staffers working on grass roots efforts has more than doubled.
And the campaign expects to open new offices soon, including one in the Tampa Bay area.
"My sense is as this campaign in Florida begins to intensify ... you'll see Mitt Romney's numbers begin to look better nationally as well as in Florida," said Al Cardenas, Romney's top adviser here. "And it augurs for a real fight."
The preparations come less than two weeks before Florida voters cast ballots on Jan. 29, and just days ahead of Romney's arrival in the state this weekend. The latest polls show him in fourth place in the state, but within striking distance of leaders Giuliani and John McCain.
The win in Romney's native Michigan on Tuesday gave the campaign a reprieve from the high-stakes expectations game it had been losing. Despite advantages in operation and money, Romney suffered successive defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire. His strategy of building momentum with early victories is shot, but he did place second in both those states and now has victories in Wyoming and Michigan.
Still, the campaign is downplaying Romney's expectations going forward. Advisers said they expect to do well in Saturday's Nevada caucus, but they are content to finish middle of the pack in South Carolina's important primary held on the same day.
Cardenas, the former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, called Florida "a top prize, a significant prize" but said "it's not critical to win."
He thinks Florida will do little to establish a front-runner. "In Florida everyone can get a chunk of the vote, so the winner is not going to be decided in Florida by a significant margin."
Romney plans to spend time crisscrossing the state after Saturday's contests but will also take a few days to visit some of the 20 states that hold Republican primaries on Feb. 5.
Giuliani spokesman Elliott Bundy said rivals shouldn't expect to make any headway in Florida. "We think that other candidates looking to come to Florida with any sort of momentum are going to be hard pressed to find any place that (Giuliani) hasn't visited already or doesn't already have a base of support," he said.
The former New York City mayor has practically moved to Florida, spending 45 days in the state.
"If you can run a successful campaign in Florida," Bundy said, "you can be competitive in any other state across the country."