With Lead Fading, Giuliani To Speak In Tampa

TAMPA - With his frontrunner status in the GOP presidential primary in jeopardy, Rudy Giuliani will give a major speech in Tampa on Saturday that top campaign aides hope will "mark a turning point in the campaign."

Campaign manager Mike DuHaime said that with the first primaries only three weeks away, the speech is intended to shift the campaign from its organizing and fundraising phase to direct voter contact.

But it's clearly also an attempt to counter problems that have eroded Giuliani's position in the race over the past month.

His choice to make the speech in Florida - and in the Tampa Bay area, the state's biggest media market - underscores his campaign's reliance on Florida as its fortress among the early primary states.

The campaign hopes Florida's Jan. 29 primary will compensate for possible losses by Giuliani in the early January states where he's trailing in polls - Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

A big win in Florida, where he holds a double-digit lead, could springboard him into the Feb. 5 "tsunami Tuesday" primaries. On that day, some 21 states will vote, possibly deciding nominees in both parties.

Though he's long been considered frontrunner in the large, competitive GOP primary, Giuliani has been unable to pull away from the crowd.

In the past month, his lead has shrunk in national polls as he has taken hits in news stories about his record as New York mayor.

He has been involved in tit-for-tat arguments over immigration, taxes and spending with competitors including Mitt Romney, and has seen first Fred Thompson and now Mike Huckabee soar into prominence.

Giuliani will speak at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Tampa Convention Center, and make a similar appearance Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville.

The speech won't announce any major new policy stances, DuHaime said, but will attempt to set the tone for the rest of the campaign.

"He'll make the argument about why he's the best leader, show his vision for what America will be like under the Giuliani presidency," he said.

He said Giuliani will portray an optimistic view of America and its future, and will seek to move away from the sparring with other candidates.

That sparring hasn't always served him well. In the CNN/YouTube debate, for example, Giuliani was said to have seemed petty and personal in his criticism of Romney over immigration issues, even though the criticisms were largely true.

"A lot of times in campaigns, it bogs down into what's wrong with America or each individual candidate," DuHaime said. In the speech Saturday, "optimism is what you'll hear a lot."

The speech theme, aides said, is "Tested. Ready. Now." A Giuliani statement in Wednesday's Des Moines Register debate previewed its tone.

Giuliani said he has "been tested by having to provide leadership through crisis ... We have problems that we haven't faced in the past and solved. We need an optimistic leader who can bring us these kinds of solutions."

Democrats said Giuliani is reacting to deteriorating poll numbers caused by questions about his ethics as mayor.

News investigations have said Giuliani used city police security escorts for trips to visit Judith Nathan, then his mistress and now his wife, and hid the cost in the budgets of obscure city agencies. He also provided her with tax-paid security details even before it was publicly known the two had a relationship.

Giuliani says there were no improper expenditures and no intent to hide expenditures.

"He's trying to stop the slide," said Luis Miranda, Democratic National Committee spokesman.

DuHaime denied that was the purpose of the speech.

"We've always known this race was going to be a close, tight race with at least five candidates getting double-digit support," he said. "At this natural turning point, it's the right time for the mayor to make his case."

He acknowledged that Giuliani's heavy reliance on Florida and Feb. 5, putting less emphasis on Iowa and New Hampshire, "clearly is not the traditional strategy that's been followed in the past."

But he said he thinks Florida voters will make their decisions independent of the other states, and are more representative of the nation as a whole.

Giuliani showed the importance he places on Florida in a "Meet The Press" interview Sunday.

Host Tim Russert asked him to react to polls showing him trailing in the early states, and Giuliani repeatedly responded, "I wish you'd show Florida."

A Quinnipiac University poll last week showed Giuliani with 30 percent among Florida Republicans, Romney 12 percent, Huckabee 11 percent, Thompson 10 percent and John McCain 9 percent.