Mitt Romney and John McCain remained deadlocked heading into today’s GOP presidential primary in Florida, with each hoping for a boost in advance of Super Tuesday.
According to Real Clear Politics, a Web site that averages major polls, McCain had the support of 29.3 percent of Florida Republicans, while Romney had 28.5. Garnering only about half this level of support were Rudy Giuliani with 15.9 percent and Mike Huckabee with 13.4 percent.
Mindful of the extraordinary closeness of the race in this winner-take-all state, where 57 delegates are at stake, Romney and McCain continued to aggressively criticize each other in the final hours of the contest. McCain ran an ad on Florida radio stations that cited a Wall Street Journal poll suggesting that Democrat Hillary Clinton would beat Romney in a general election matchup by 16 points.
“That should scare Florida Republicans,” says an announcer before McCain adds: “I’m John McCain and I approve this message.”
McCain shrugged off the intensity of his attacks on the former Massachusetts governor.
“It ain’t bean bag,” McCain told Fox News. “So we’re going to be talking about his record as governor, how they had the third worst job loss of anybody, saddled with a quarter billion dollar debt over his government-mandated health care plan, flight of manufacturing jobs, raised taxes by $730 million.”
At a campaign stop in Sanford, Romney fired back by likening McCain to liberal Democrats.
“He’s known as a maverick because he champions those bills, which happen to be more Democratic than Republican,” Romney said before ticking off McCain-supported legislation on immigration, energy and campaign finance.
Giuliani, who has staked his candidacy on winning Florida, tried to remain above the fray.
“Some of my opponents are getting involved in negative attacks on each other,” he told Fox. “I believe that staying positive will pay off for us.”
Giuliani flatly predicted he would win Florida because he has the national security strength of McCain and the economic expertise of Romney.
Huckabee, who has had difficulty capitalizing on his Jan. 3 victory in the Iowa caucuses, tried to downplay the importance of Florida.
“Florida was not an all-or-nothing state for us in terms of that we had to win it or we’re finished,” he told Fox. “I mean, Rudy’s put his flag here in a big, significant way. We never did.”
Asked about speculation that he might drop out of the race before Super Tuesday, Huckabee said he would remain in the race even after that day.
Florida’s election is the last before Super Tuesday in one week, when more than 20 states will hold primaries and caucuses.
