Rudy Giuliani’s top strategists effectively ceded Iowa to Mitt Romney Monday, but said Romney’s resulting momentum would not be enough to win the GOP presidential nomination.
Acknowledging Romney’s double-digit lead in polls of Iowa Republicans, Giuliani strategist Brent Seaborn said the former New York mayor is shooting for second place, though even that spot could go to dark horse candidate Mike Huckabee.
“We’re really in sort of battle with Governor Huckabee there for who’s going to be in second place,” Seaborn said of Iowa. “We’re comfortable with where we’re at.”
Giuliani campaign manager Mike DuHaime said even if Romney wins Iowa on Jan. 3 and then goes on to win New Hampshire and Michigan in the following days, he will fall short on Super Tuesday, which is scheduled for Feb. 5. That’s when primaries will be held in at least 20 states, including many where Giuliani is enjoying healthy leads in the polls.
“Whether it’s New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, I mean, some of those leads are momentum-proof, I think, in terms of just how large they are at this point,” DuHaime said. “We’re going to do well on February 5th.”
Such predictions struck the Romney campaign as overly confident.
“Mayor Giuliani’s ‘momentum-proof’ national polling lead, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny all walk into a bar,” said Romney press secretary Kevin Madden. “You’re right. None of them exist.”
Madden dismissed the importance of national polls that show Giuliani with a wide lead by saying those are merely a measure of the former mayor’s high name recognition. The spokesman emphasized the importance of early contest states such as Iowa.
“For Mayor Giuliani to have 100 percent of Iowa voters know who he is, yet only around 11 percent of those voters support him, that’s a major problem for his candidacy,” Madden said.
DuHaime insisted early states like Iowa will not doom Giuliani.
“There are multiple paths to victory,” he said. “Everyone seems to be obviously focused on the traditional path of winning the early states and then having momentum throughout. I think what we see is there’s a possibility of two paths.”
