Romney wins big in Florida

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney celebrates his Florida primary election win Tuesday at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Fla. Photo by Julie Smith.

By The Associated Press

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Mitt Romney routed Newt Gingrich in the Florida primary Tuesday night, rebounding from the previous week’s defeat with a commanding victory and taking a major step toward the Republican presidential nomination. Despite the one-sided setback, Gingrich vowed to press on.

“Thank you FL!” an exuberant Romney tweeted minutes after the race was called. “While we celebrate this victory, we must not forget what this election is really about: defeating Barack Obama.”

Romney, later talking unity like a nominee, said he was ready “to lead this party and our nation” — and turn Democratic President Barack Obama out of office. In remarks to cheering supporters, the former Massachusetts governor unleashed a strong attack on Obama and said the competitive fight for the GOP nomination “does not divide us, it prepares us” for the fall.

“Mr. President, you were elected to lead, you chose to follow, and now it’s time to get out of the way,” he declared.

Returns from slightly more than half of Florida’s precincts showed Romney with 47 percent of the vote, to 33 percent for Gingrich.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had 13 percent, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul 7 percent. Neither mounted a substantial effort in the state.

The winner-take-all primary was worth 50 Republican National Convention delegates, by far the most of any primary state so far.

But the bigger prize was precious political momentum in the race to pick an opponent for Democratic President Barack Obama this fall.

That belonged to Romney when he captured the New Hampshire primary three weeks ago, then swung stunningly to Gingrich when he countered with a South Carolina upset 11 days later.

Now it was back with the former Massachusetts governor, after a 10-day comeback that marked a change to more aggressive tactics, coupled with an efficient use of an overwhelming financial advantage.

About half of Florida primary voters said the most important factor for them was backing a candidate who can defeat Obama in November, according to early exit poll results conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks.

As in early contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, that mattered more than experience, moral character or conservative credentials.

Not surprisingly, in a state with an unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent, about two-thirds of voters said the economy was their top issue. More than 8 in 10 said they were falling behind or just keeping up. And half said home foreclosures have been a major problem in their communities.

Gingrich swept into Florida from South Carolina, only to run headlong into a different Romney from the one he had left in his wake in South Carolina.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, shed his reluctance to attack Gingrich, the former House speaker, unleashing hard-hitting ads on television, sharpening his performance in a pair of debates and deploying surrogates to the edges of Gingrich’s own campaign appearances, all in hopes of unnerving him.

Restore our Future, an outside group supporting Romney, accounted for about $8.8 million in the ad wars, and the candidate and the “super PAC” combined outspent Gingrich and Winning The Future, the organization backing him, by about $15.5 million to $3.3 million, an advantage of nearly 5-1.

Gingrich responded by assailing Romney as a man incapable of telling the truth and vowed to remain in the race until the Republican National Convention next summer. He won the endorsement of campaign dropout Herman Cain and increasingly sought the support of evangelicals and tea party advocates, a former House speaker running as the anti-establishment insurgent of the party he once helped lead.

Bombarded by harsh television advertising, some Floridians said they had soured on both candidates.

“The dirty ads really turned me off on Mitt Romney,” said Dorothy Anderson, of Pinellas Park, adding she was voting for Gingrich. She said of Romney, “In fact if he gets the nomination, I probably won’t vote for him.”

At the same polling place, Romney supporter Curtis Dempsey expressed similar feelings but about Gingrich. “The only thing Newt Gingrich has to offer is a big mouth,” he said.

Santorum had no money for television ads to back up his strong debate performances. He left the state at one point, saying he was going home to Pennsylvania to prepare his income tax returns. But he stayed longer than anticipated, because of the hospitalization of his 3-year-old daughter with pneumonia. The girl has a rare genetic disorder, Trisomy 18.

Santorum and Paul both campaigned in Colorado on Tuesday as Florida Republicans were voting. The state has caucuses on Feb 7, the same day as Minnesota.

More like this story

Graceful 1 year, 3 months ago

Say hello to Mitt Romney, your next president!!!!

asb 1 year, 3 months ago

Well, he IS the best the GOP has offered up in the last six months, but this is the nicest thing you've had to say about him yet; and with millions of right-wingers not voting, or writing in Jesus, or voting for Ron Paul, he's not going to be president come January 2013. Maybe 2017, but I doubt it.

JCLifer 1 year, 3 months ago

Muslim to Mormon. Doesn't seem to be an improvement for our country to me. We need a Christian president for our Christian-founded country to bring it back from the brink.

asb 1 year, 3 months ago

This is a very instructive example of how important nuance is in political speech. We all know Mitt actually cares about the poor, and the rich. He was trying to say the same thing Obama said the other night - that the middle class is where America's past present and future greatness lies. But, he wanted to say it differently. His people chose a simple line of thought and it will bite him as long and hard as a cornered Pit Bull. It's not fair, but this is his chosen profession and as a Democrat, I love it!

JCLifer 1 year, 3 months ago

No kidding. Barrack Huesein continues to support bailouts and supports to the big corporations and wealthy captains of business and industry instead of the voters.

spelchek 1 year, 3 months ago

Yes he is, they're called unions.

JCLifer 1 year, 3 months ago

One would think he would care about folks struggling under the ever-increasing costs of fuel for their cars and homes, but he vetoes the Keystone Pipeline and prevents drilling for oil in ANWAR and other places so that we could become more energy self-sufficient and stop paying for all that expensive Muslim oil.

asb 1 year, 3 months ago

Keystone, or a valid alternative, will be built when environmental concerns are properly addressed. We're drilling for more oil now than during Bush's last term. But, neither will lower the cost of oil, there's just not enough left in North America to matter.. Destroying ANWAR to get its bit of goo is pure de-nosing of a face. Our demand far exceeds our remaining sources and our need, muslim or otherwise. Until our cars average 100 mpg, our buildings take 10-15% of todays energy to run, and our non-carbon energy sources are as subsidized as oil coal and gas, we're at the mercy of the sheiks and the world will warm yet more. This, of course, is Obama's fault . . .

JCLifer 1 year, 3 months ago

Spit out that koolaide and use your head. Ever take Economics 101? Supply and demand sound familiar?

asb 1 year, 3 months ago

Oh please, tell me more economics Lifer! Our demand is exceeding our supply, the price goes up. The supply will not be materially impacted by keystone, ANWAR, or even tar sands. Our rate of burning is too great. Even the energy industry admits we've maxed our rate of production. That doesn't keep their PR engine from screaming for more local shredding of the planet for a little bit more profit. Use less, it's easier than fighting wars over the last drops.

JCLifer 1 year, 3 months ago

We have enough oil in the northern plains to supply our needs for at least another 100 years. Why are we not tapping into it and using it? Why are we so bent on importing so much oil and paying all our money to people who hate us? (I know why- and it has to do with lobbiests and campaign donors to both parties-- yes even Obama is worried about protecting his big donors from Big Oil.

More supply = lower price. We have all this oil but yet our own government wants to restrict the supply to keep the prices up so that their donors can keep raking in the big bucks.

asb 1 year, 3 months ago

There's not that much accessible oil in the shales and sands. Nobody has come up with economical extraction methods other than strip mining our prairies or injecting toxins into the plains aquifers to get production to rates needed to significantly help our burning rates. Yes, there's carbon in them thar rocks, but getting it out fast enough to offset our present demand will make a toxic moonscape of those areas. As for the not-so-hidden politics, you may be right, and if carbon Co greed keeps North American oil available longer at lower use rates, I'll help. It should be a major, moon-landing-WWII grade national effort to cut our use of carbon while maintaining the growth of our economy.

JCLifer 1 year, 3 months ago

Have you ever been to the Dakotas?

asb 1 year, 3 months ago

It's easy enough for you to talk such trash about somebody else's land, but yes, I've been throughout the Dakotas, and they're no less deserving of environmental protection than your back yard.

asb 1 year, 3 months ago

Some environmentalists are extremists, but most opponents of the Keystone project, as proposed, simply want an actual examination of environmental impacts and professionsl mitigation procedures in place, rather than the nearly slapdash effort thrown out with "national security" and "America first" crud PR. My facts are sound. Plan Keystone right and it will get done.

spelchek 1 year, 3 months ago

Nope. RomneyCare was designed for rich people.

Gabrielle 1 year, 3 months ago

spelchek: I am curious - why do you say this?

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 3 months ago

Let me repeat Petunia's question for the record. Why do you say that RomneyCare was designed for rich people? If you had said "designed BY rich people" I might understand, but "FOR rich people" doesn't work for me. Explain, please.

viktorkowski 1 year, 3 months ago

won't be long before he's carving up the national parks, interstates, and every other public owned piece of property to sell off to the Chinese.

asb 1 year, 3 months ago

Reminds me of the Taliban . . .

asb 1 year, 3 months ago

Based on your comment, your religious and political fundamentalism would sacrifice the American National Park sysem, the Interstates, and all other federal property. Now I realize that Viktorkowski was being facetious, but your comment history suggests you'd drool at the prospect of confiscating all federal property. That's Taliban, or haven't you read what they did to property in Afghanistan in the name of their religious and political fundamentalism. And there's nothing more foolish in my comment than your continued claims the the US is, or soon will be, bankrupt.

asb 1 year, 3 months ago

Selling federal highways and parks? Who could possibly afford them? Grace, your support of selling off federal assets is nuttier than anything I've said. Your insistance that our debt, a real but manageable problem to most economists, is a sign of American bankruptcy places you in the same nut ward as the folks who brought us demolished Buddhas, beheadings for blasphemy and burned girls' schools. I didn't say you ARE Taliban, just that your extremist approach to solving problems REMINDS me of them.

JCLifer 1 year, 3 months ago

That's weird.

Please review our Policies and Procedures before registering or commenting

Or login with:

OpenID

News Tribune