LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Republican Party of Florida’s “Victory Dinner” on Thursday was timed to rally supporters for next month’s election, but it sounded more like a celebration of presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s debate performance the night before.
Speaker after speaker mentioned the debate — Congressman Allen West said President Barack Obama was “taken out behind the woodshed,” and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said Obama probably came home on his 20th wedding anniversary to warm champagne and a microwave — and saw it as a turning point in the election that polls now show as Romney slightly trailing the president.
“How many of you enjoyed the debate last night? That was pretty good, right?” Gov. Rick Scott said to cheers as he opened his remarks to about 750 donors. “(Romney) showed that he has the passion and the conviction to turn this country around.”
The speakers, though, reminded the party supporters that they need to use the energy from the debate to continue working until the Nov. 6 election. West, a former Army officer, compared it to combat, saying that after a successful firefight, soldiers might celebrate that night, but they have to remember something in the morning.
“You must understand one simple thing. Tomorrow you have to go back outside that gate. You have to go back outside that wire. And the enemy that you confronted now believes that he knows your tactics, he knows your processes and procedures and he’s going to go back because he’s angry,” West said. “We are still in a fight.”
McDonnell was the keynote speaker, and told the crowd that if Florida and Virginia support Romney, he will win the White House. Florida, with 29 electoral votes, is the largest battleground state. Virginia, another tossup state, has 13 electoral votes.
And like the speakers that led up to him, McDonnell also boasted about the debate.
“What a tough night for Barack Obama last night. What a terrible way to spend your 20th anniversary — getting the tar beaten out of you by Mitt Romney,” McDonnell said.
The dinner raised more than $500,000 for the party.
The Florida Democratic Party responded to the event with a reminder that a company hired by the state GOP to register voters is being investigated for fraud.
“Voters will take Romney’s hollow debate rhetoric as seriously as they take the RPOF’s doublespeak on cracking down on elections fraud — especially after allegedly committing it themselves,” said state Democratic Party spokeswoman Brannon Jordan.
Far less attention was paid to the other top of the ballot race — the U.S. Senate.
Connie Mack IV, the Republican Senate nominee, did not attend the event because of a fundraising commitment made before the dinner was scheduled, but his father, former Sen. Connie Mack III stood in for him. He called his son a man of courage and conviction and repeated many of the same themes the younger Mack raises on the campaign trail. He said incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson backs Obama with nearly every vote.
The elder Mack also revised a line he used successfully in 1988 when he beat Buddy MacKay to win the Senate seat his son is now seeking.
“Hey Billy, you’re a liberal!” Mack said as he closed his remarks.
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Follow Brendan Farrington on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bsfarrington
