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Politics : MITT ROMNEY -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (95)	1/28/2008 5:28:36 PM
From: Neeka	Respond to of 5586

Election-eve: McCain-Romney tied, Giuliani fades by Mark Silva ORLANDO – A heated contest between Sen. John McCain and former Gov. Mitt Romney for the endorsement of Florida’s Republican voters is closing with a virtual tie among likely voters, a new election-eve poll shows. McCain claims the support of 32 percent of those surveyed by Quinnipiac University, Romney 31 percent. And the political fortunes of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani apparently have faded in Florida, a state where the New Yorker has banked all of his hopes for the Republican Party’s 2008 presidential nomination – a state which, Giuliani has flatly declared in the closing days of his campaign, will name the GOP’s nominee. Giuliani draws 14 percent of those surveyed. In the uncontested Democratic primary – with candidates refraining from campaigning here because of the national party’s punishment of the state party for holding a January primary against party rules – Sen. Hillary Clinton maintains an apparent 20 percentage-point lead over Sen. Barack Obama. Clinton plans to fly to Florida on election night, appearing after polls close, to draw attention to the “win.’’ The Quinnipiac poll, when taken in the long view of earlier surveys, portrays long and precipitous slide for Giuliani, once the apparent front-runner here. The race appeared to present a four-way tie among leading Republicans as recently as Jan. 14 in Quinnipiac's surveys. The new survey underscores how competitive the race between Romney and McCain has become, with both counting on a Florida victory to launch them into a series of big-state primaries on Feb. 5. A win for McCain here could seal his image as the Republican to beat. A win for Romney could renew his competitiveness. And the stakes of this contest are born out in a war of campaign trail words between McCain and Romney, who have sparred over each others' credentials -- McCain's on the economy, and Romney's on national security. And today, McCain is attacking Romney for raising gas taxes as governor of Massachusets and for flip-flopping on "cap-and-trade'' issues in the climate change debate. Romney is fighting back, accusing McCain of distorting his record. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the opening Iowa caucuses but has lacked the campaign funds to finance any television ads in this far-flung state of 18 million where campaigns are driven by TV, draws just 13 percent of those surveyed here – vying with Giuliani for third place in this poll. Among Republican voters here, 78 percent of McCain’s supporters and 66 percent of Romney’s tell pollsters they are not likely to change their minds. Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute, puts all this in an old Florida sort of way – remember, this is the place where the late Gov. Lawton Chiles once declared in a debate with rival Jeb Bush that “the old he-coon walks just before the light of day:’’ “Sen. McCain and Gov. Romney are tight as a tick, although McCain’s supporters appear slightly more committed. With 24 hours to go, the race is up in the air…. (and) Mayor Giuliani rolled the dice for his entire campaign on Florida, and barring a comeback of monumental proportions, it looks like he is coming up snake eyes.’’ The survey was run Jan. 24 – 27, with 481 likely Democratic primary voters surveyed, and a possible margin of error of 4.5 percent, and 585 likely Republican primary voters surveyed, with a possible margin of error of 4.1 percent. Posted by Mark Silva on January 28, 2008 9:10 AM weblogs.baltimoresun.com