Prez Primary Heats Up South Florida Politics

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Republican presidential candidates from left to right: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, for U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.

Florida politics heat up as Republicans will select their presidential candidate in just 14 days.
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The five Republican candidates squared off in a feisty debate in South Carolina last night with Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney trading barbs over super PAC TV commercials.

"Well, this is typical of what both Senator Santorum and I have complained about with Governor Romney's super PAC ? over which he apparently has no influence, which makes you wonder how much influence he'd have if he were president," Gingrich said.
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Romney also spoke of his dissatisfaction with the PAC commercials.
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"We all would like to have super PACs disappear, to tell you the truth ... but you know what? This campaign is not about ads, it's about issues," Romney said.
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The former Massachusetts governor and former House speaker lead the field in Florida.
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Romney is the only candidate running commercials in South Florida. His political machine is organized here.
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Fort Lauderdale attorney and Romney's statewide co-chairman, Justin Sayfie, says early and absentee voting have been the campaign's focus.
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More than 400,000 Florida republicans have requested absentee ballots, according to Sayfie.
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"Over 100,000 Republican voters have already voted, have already cast their ballots for who they want to be the presidential nominee," Sayfie said.
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Gingrich has also had a presence in South Florida, making an appearance in Little Havana last week.
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His Florida campaign director, Jose Mallea, told NBC Miami that Gingrich supporters are energized after his performance in last night's debate.
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"We're starting to hear from a lot of people that were undecided, whether it's Tea Party leaders or just volunteers and just voters, saying after last night, 'we feel strongly this is the right candidate,'" Mallea said.
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Romney enjoys a sizeable 41 percent to 26 percent lead over Gingrich in the latest Florida public policy polling survey. Eleven percent of those polled support former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Texas Congressman Ron Paul garners 10 percent, while Texas Governor Rick Perry rounds out the field with 4 percent.

Posted Tuesday, Jan 17, 2012 - 6:53 PM EST

Source: http://feeds.nbcmiami.com/click.phdo?i=905ec93ed5961bdd43a522f1573b2d07

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