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Giuliani Stumping Florida

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By WILLIAM MARCH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 26, 2007

Updated: 12/25/2007 11:56 pm

TAMPA - With the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary within the next two weeks, Rudy Giuliani will make a three-day campaign swing through Florida starting today.

Giuliani's trip to Florida underscores his unconventional campaign strategy, heavily emphasizing larger, later-voting states including Florida and the Feb. 5 primary states over the early states - Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina - that now are drawing most of the attention of the leading candidates.

It also shows the importance Giuliani is putting on Florida, his firewall, as the GOP primary race becomes tighter and more unpredictable.

Giuliani will start his Florida swing today with visits to the editorial boards of The Tampa Tribune and the St. Petersburg Times. He then will have a roundtable discussion in Largo on veterans' issues - attendance is by invitation only.

Thursday, he will have another veterans' roundtable in Fort Lauderdale, then a town hall meeting in Dania Beach on law enforcement themes, then he will visit the Bay of Pigs Museum in Miami.

Friday, he will have a morning news conference in Orlando before heading back to Iowa.

Challenges in the early states from Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee have put Giuliani in danger of losing his frontrunner status in the primary. But in Florida, he still holds a clear lead in the most recent poll of GOP voters, a Quinnipiac University poll published Thursday.

It showed Giuliani with 28 percent, Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, with 21 percent, Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, with 20 percent, Arizona Sen. John McCain with 13 percent, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson with 8 percent and 6 percent undecided.

Asked why Giuliani is committing precious time in Florida this soon before Iowa and New Hampshire, spokesman Elliott Bundy acknowledged Florida is "a crucial state for our campaign."

University of South Florida political science Professor Darryl Paulson, a Giuliani supporter, said there always has been "division within the top levels of the campaign" over the strategy of relying so heavily on Florida.

This visit, Paulson said, "probably reflects that they realize now it's too late to switch emphasis to Iowa and New Hampshire, so they're falling back on their fail-safe and trying to build as big a win as possible in Florida."

In the past three Quinnipiac polls, Bundy noted, Giuliani's support has remained steady, in the range of 30 percent.

"His base of support has remained remarkably consistent," Bundy said. "Florida is representative of the entire country, and runs the gamut of national issues."

Giuliani's top strategists also apparently don't think Florida Republicans will make their decision in the race by the results in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

"Florida's going to want to have its own say," campaign manager Michael DuHaime said in a recent interview with the Tribune. "They may or may not want to vote for who the early states voted for."

None of Giuliani's GOP competitors has any plans to campaign in Florida in the immediate future.

"His Florida plans are Iowa, Iowa, Iowa, Iowa," said Jeff Sadosky, a spokesman for Thompson.

A Romney spokeswoman said even though the candidate has concentrated his campaign heavily on Florida, he doesn't plan to be back in the state before the Iowa caucuses.

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.

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