Mitt Romney is pushing for a big win over Newt Gingrich in Florida’s pivotal primary today as he seeks to tighten his grip as the front-runner in the race to pick a Republican challenger to US president Barack Obama.
Mr Romney enters the day as the heavy favourite in the primary, the final contest in a month of high-stakes elections in which the former Massachusetts governor has claimed one win and two second places so far.
Polls show him with a double-digit lead in Florida, the fourth and largest state so far to hold a nominating contest.
The winner takes all 50 delegates at stake - the biggest prize to date in the state-by-state nominating contests leading to the Republican National Convention in late August in Tampa that will select the nominee.
Mr Romney has been the front-runner for much of the race, but suffered a stunning loss to Mr Gingrich in the January 21st South Carolina primary. However, in the span of a volatile week, the race has been turned upside-down.
Mr Romney and his allies have pummelled Mr Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, on TV and on the campaign trail. Mr Romney turned in two strong debate performances, while Mr Gingrich faltered. Now opinion polls show Mr Romney with a comfortable lead.
A Romney win today is unlikely to end Mr Gingrich’s candidacy in a Republican contest that has turned increasingly hostile. But it would give him clear momentum as the race enters a relatively quiet period next month with lower-profile contests, some in states friendly to the more moderate candidate.
Mr Romney has the advantage of more campaign money, a stronger national organisation and the support of much of the Republican establishment.
Mr Gingrich’s populist, sharp-tongued attacks on Mr Obama and media “elites” have helped him emerge as Mr Romney’s chief rival, but Romney supporters have tried to cast him as too erratic to be an effective nominee or president.
Mr Romney is generally considered the Republicans’ strongest candidate to face Mr Obama, whose re-election prospects have been hurt by the slow US economic recovery.
But he has had difficulty winning over many Republicans who question his conservative credentials, given his shifting views on abortion, gay rights and gun control, as well as the similarities between a Massachusetts health insurance plan he backed as governor and Mr Obama’s national plan, which is widely despised by Republicans.
The polls opened at 7am local time (12pm Irish time) across Florida, where Mr Romney offered an increasingly optimistic tone while campaigning in recent days.
“With a turnout like this, I’m beginning to feel we might win tomorrow,” he told a crowd of several hundred at a stop in Dunedin yesterday as he and Mr Gingrich made their final appeals across the state.
Mr Romney ridiculed Mr Gingrich, saying he was making excuses for what is likely to be a poor showing tonight. "He's been flailing around trying to whack me for one thing or another."
Mr Romney renewed attacks on his rival as an untrustworthy, Washington influence peddler at the outset of two separate appearances. He claimed that Mr Gingrich’s ties to federally backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac, despised by conservatives, have hurt the former speaker in a state wracked by the foreclosure crisis.
Mr Gingrich, in turn, acknowledged that his momentum had been checked but promised to remain in the race through the Republican convention. He characterised Mr Romney as an imposter, and his team started to plot a strategy for upcoming contests.
“He can bury me for a very short amount of time with four or five or six times as much money,” Mr Gingrich said in a television interview. “In the long run, the Republican Party is not going to nominate... a liberal Republican.”
The Romney campaign cancelled a rally this morning but scheduled a night celebration at the Tampa Convention Centre.
Mr Gingrich planned a blitz of local television interviews and appearances at polling stations in Orlando, Lakeland and Celebration - before gathering with supporters for a primary night party in Orlando. The last polls close at 8pm local time (1am Irish time).
The other two candidates in the race will not be in Florida today.
Both former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and Texas congressman Ron Paul have ceded Florida’s primary to Mr Romney and Mr Gingrich in favour of smaller, less-expensive contests. They will spend the day campaigning across Colorado and Nevada.
AP