Clearwater, FL — Rudy Giuliani is facing a major uphill climb as he conducts a last-ditch, one-day plane tour to five Florida cities Monday. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that the former NYC mayor has lost 50 percent of his support in the last month in his must-win state and is now down nearly 20 points to both Mitt Romney and John McCain.
LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS
1/28 1/14 12/20/07
Giuliani 14 20 28
Huckabee 13 19 21
McCain 32 22 13
Romney 31 19 20
What makes the drop even more stunning is that it has taken place as the mayor dropped more than $6 million campaigning in Florida, put up nearly a dozen television ads and spent the last 20 days straight in the Sunshine State.
But, Giuliani often touts on the stump that he pulled off the “impossible” in New York, and told a Tampa audience in December, “I just don’t pray for miracles, I just don’t hope for miracles, I expect miracles.” On the first flight this morning from Orlando to Clearwater, I asked him whether he is holding true to his philosophy to always “underpromise and overdeliver,” by repeatedly stating that he will win Florida. Giuliani didn’t flinch. “We’re gonna deliver Florida,” he said. (video above)
Sanford, FL — In a new web-only ad, Rudy Giuliani is touting the fact he didn’t get the support of the “liberal” newspapers–including the New York Times– that all endorsed John McCain.
Cocoa Beach, FL — Rudy Giuliani is continuing his kumbaya message with hours to go before the Florida primary.
“I feel like my two opponents, Senator McCain and Governor Romney, are doing such a good job attacking each other. How about voting for somebody who is not attacking? Vote for Rudy Giuliani!” he told a crowd of about 250 at the Ron Jon Surf Shop. “Let’s be clear about the important priorities–that’s what a presidential election’s all about. A presidential election is not about name calling. A presidential election is not about gotcha–and almost like high school politics. A presidential election is about things that are bigger than us.”
When asked at a press availability earlier in Port St. Lucie if his opponents’ lack of attention to him meant he was no longer taken seriously in the race, Giuliani instead chose to repeat his call for civility. “I think that is the wrong kind of campaign to be conducting here in Florida,” he said.
Port St. Lucie, FL — As Giuliani begins his final uphill 48-hour push for votes with a bus tour up the Florida east coast, campaign aides are finding some hope in early and absentee voting numbers released yesterday.
The GOP numbers according to the Republican Party of Florida:
State party officials estimate that absentee and early votes will constitute about one third of the nearly 1.4 to 1.5 million Republicans expected to cast ballots.
The Giuliani campaign has been conducting a major get out the vote (GOTV) push for the last month as their rivals were campaigning in early states, and aides say they are confident that they are leading the early vote count. Absentee voting began in late December and early voting began on January 14, six days before McCain and Romney arrived in the state.
More than 1,000 campaign volunteers made more than 87,000 phone calls yesterday, campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella said.
Boca Raton, FL — As the campaign sees it’s poll numbers falling and braces for a possible loss in their must-win state Tuesday, Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s endorsement of John McCain is the latest disappointment and affront to Rudy Giuliani–who has pulled out all the stops to win over Sunshine State voters and secure the Gov’s blessing.
Up until the New Hampshire primary, Crist had privately pledged to endorse the former NYC mayor (as FOX previously reported) but switched allegiances to McCain in the last two weeks, Giuliani campaign aides tell Fox News.
Giuliani’s campaign motto is “Florida counts,” he will have spent 50+ days overall and 20 days straight campaigning in the state through Tuesday and to top it off, he agreed to support a National Catastrophe fund—essentially a federal insurance bail out that would benefit Floridians suffering from high rates due to hurricanes and a pet issue for Crist.
In supporting the fund, which would cost taxpayers around the country more than $200 billion, Giuliani went against much of his underlying fiscal conservative ideology and campaign pledges to restrain Washington spending–all for Floridians and Crist.
Orlando, FL — Rudy Giuliani is making his final pitch to Sunshine State voters in a 90-second ad, “Clear,” set to air Sunday on Florida CBS affiliates during “60 Minutes.”
Giuliani is going back to basics with talk of terror, tax cuts and some love for his Florida base—note the mention of standing up to Arafat and Castro and his support for the National Catastrophe Fund.
Orlando, FL — Rudy Giuliani may have finally found his message for Florida voters: Can’t we all get along.
Responding to the escalating war of words between John McCain and Mitt Romney, Giuliani said Saturday that the American people are “tired of the name calling and finger pointing.”
“If you listen to my opponents, it is getting kind of nasty,” Giuliani told a “Women for Rudy” event in Orlando. “We don’t want to become like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton right? They are trying to work their way out of it, we dont want to work our way into it. Right?”
At a media availability after the event, Giuliani savored the opportunity to cast himself as the optimistic candidate with a vision for Florida—calling on his opponents to strike a cease fire.
“I think this election should be about the positive things, about what we can do, what we can accomplish. I’m concerned that some of my opponents are engaging in negative campaigning using words like ‘dishonesty,’” he said. “The reason I am being positive is I believe that is the way to win. It seems to me you sorta got that message when you saw what happened in Iowa with Mike Huckabee. The American people are sending us a message that they want us to be positive–that they are tired of the name calling and finger pointing.” (See video above for more)
Sarasota, FL — As he makes his final 72-hour push in the Sunshine State, Rudy Giuliani is embracing his underdog status and asking voters to ignore the “experts” and the latest polls showing a slide in Florida.
“Don’t listen to any of the cynics. Don’t listen to any of the experts. You’re the experts. The person who goes to the polling place and marks down the ballot, marks down the vote. That’s the expert,” he told about 200 attendees at a meet and greet at the Columbia Restaurant in Sarasota. “I like feeling like I am an underdog. I think underdogs get a lot of sympathy, get a lot of support, get a lot of interest.”
In recent days, his campaign surrogates have also been railing against the media and pundits for their “pessimism.” Prior to Giuliani’s speech at Sarasota’s Lincoln Day Dinner Friday night, FL Attorney General Bill McCollum and former Congressman Bill Paxon both urged the more than 500 attendees at the gathering to ignore the latest polling.
The Giuliani campaign’s war on polls is a recent development, especially after months of religiously citing national and state surveys as evidence of his support. During interviews during the last couple months, Giuliani would often cite his polling leads (which have mostly evaporated) in most Feb 5 states when questioned about ignoring the early primary states.
The same is true for his aides. Back in an October 2 memo that broke down all of Giuliani’s polling advantages, campaign strategist Brent Seaborn led off by noting that “Mayor Giuliani continues to lead all major media polls.” He also touted, “as this race enters the home stretch, Mayor Giuliani continues lead every national poll while no single opponent has emerged to threaten his frontrunner status,” arguing that he expected one other candidate to emerge at Giuliani’s chief rival. As recently as December 31, Seaborn released a memo titled “Looking Good” noting that “Mayor Giuliani has enjoyed a commanding lead in nearly every public poll conducted in the delegate rich states of Florida, California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey.” While Seaborn warned of “tightening,” Giuliani’s now trails in almost all of those states only three weeks later.
Governor Romney addressed the Latin Builders Association today ahead of Mayor Giuliani, Governor Huckabee, and Senator McCain who were also scheduled to address the Association. With economic worries at the forefront of all the headlines, Romney has been campaigning on his business experience. But, during today’s speech he went into greater detail and talked about his background in venture capital:
“Now it takes a degree of chutzpah to go to someone and say give me your money and I will invest it for you and I’ll give you back 80% of the profit I make and I’m gonna keep 20% of the profit I make, I’m gonna charge you a 2% fee for taking your money and by the way if I lose your money, too bad, I don’t share in the downside, I only share in the upside.”
The presidential hopeful often talks about his background “turning around” failing companies or investing in start-ups that become great successes. His favorite example is the birth of the Staples company which he helped turn into a company that now employs just over 34,000 people. But, today he talked about one of the darker sides of business and how there is no way around it:
“I’ve had settings where I’ve had to lay people off. It’s an awful feeling. No one likes laying people off. Someone who thinks you’re a bad person if you lay someone off doesn’t understand,” Romney said, “You feel bad. It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve done in business was asking a person to be let go. Letting somebody go. It’s awful. It feels terrible. It’s an indication the business isn’t doing well.”
She doesn’t spend much time on the trail attacking Republicans other than President Bush, but Senator Clinton was asked about her GOP rival and fellow New Yorker Rudy Giuliani by a New York Times reporter today — who pointed out that Hizzoner has yet to win a primary or a caucus yet and seems to be fading in his firewall state of Florida. “Do you feel sorry for him?” she was asked.
Grinning, Clinton told said reporter, “you are so bad!”
Addressing the substance of the question, Clinton said “he’s worked very hard in this campaign, and anybody who puts themselves into this arena deserves our respect. This is not easy. I mean, this is the hardest job in the world, getting there is probably the hardest path in the world. And I respect anyone who makes the effort.”
“We never know what’s going to happen in an election,” she continued. “It is very unpredictable. I will leave commentary about the Republican race to the Republicans and to all of you. But I respect anybody who is willing to step out there and take all of the slings and arrows that come with modern day politics.”
Dolly Upgraded to Category 1 Hurricane Dolly spun into a hurricane Tuesday, heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border and the heavily populated Rio Grande Valley, where officials feared heavy rains could cause massive flooding and levee breaks.
Bond for Missing Florida Tot’s Mom Set at $500G A judge set bond at half a million dollars for the mother of a missing Orlando 2-year-old Tuesday after detectives testified that she is a ‘person of interest’ in the little girl’s disappearance.
TV at The Pump Gives Drivers Welcome Diversion The number of televisions atop gas pumps have skyrocketed since their introduction at a handful of stations in 2006. Now, three privately held companies have placed more than 20,000 screens at thousands of stations in the States.
Top Taliban Leader Surrenders to Pakistan Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that a Taliban leader had surrendered to Pakistani authorities and another leading insurgent had been killed by British forces.
