Mitt Romney gets more support from Florida’s independent voters than Newt Gingrich and would be a stronger Republican presidential nominee against President Obama in November, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.

Romney and Obama are tied at 45 percent in the poll while the president would defeat Gingrich by a 50-to-39 margin in Florida the poll says.

The big difference between the Republican frontrunners: while Romney and Obama are virtually tied among independent voters, the president would defeat Gingrich by a 50-to-33 percent margin among independents in Florida.

Obama’s approval rating remains underwater in Florida, with 46 percent approving of the way he handles his duties and 52 percent disapproving. Only 43 percent of independents give Obama a positive job approval score, with 53 percent negative.

(more…)

The 12-point lead that Mitt Romney enjoyed two weeks ago in Florida has disintegrated, says a new Quinnipiac University poll that finds the Republican primary a virtual tie between Romney and surging South Carolina winner Newt Gingrich.

The poll — conducted Thursday through Monday — shows Romney getting 36 percent support from likely GOP primary voters and Gingrich getting 34 percent. The poll has a 4 percent margin of error. Rick Santorum gets 13 percent and Ron Paul 10 percent. Among voters surveyed after Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Gingrich leads Romney 40 percent to 34 percent.

Gingrich’s Florida surge comes even as Republicans believe, by a 49-to-35 percent margin, that Romney would be better able to defeat President Obama in the general election.

(more…)

LEHIGH ACRES — Standing in front of one of the many foreclosed homes in this Lee County community, Mitt Romney blasted President Obama‘s stewardship of the economy and slammed GOP rival Newt Gingrich for “influence peddling” for troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

“This president has failed America and failed Florida,” Romney said to a crowd of about 250.

Romney appeared with a man who said he recently lost his home because of a mix-up with his bank. Romney called it an example of how banks are “overwhelmed” by the Dodd-Frank bill and other regulations.

“So banks are scared to death to write down loans for fear that it’ll make them go insolvent. Banks are having a hard time. At the very time we wanted banks to be more flexible and creative and helping people stay in their homes, banks have become less flexible, less creative, more insistent on foreclosure,” Romney said.

“The right course for America is to have a president who understands how to help our lending institutions be creative and find ways to keep people who can meet their payments stay in their homes, and I’ll do that.”

(more…)

It’s not just the Republican Party establishment that believes in Mitt Romney‘s inevitability.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has weighed in on tonight’s South Carolina Republican primary results with a statement that blisters Romney and doesn’t mention Palmetto State victor Newt Gingrich. It’s clear that Democrats expect President Obama to be facing Romney in the fall.

The Broward County congresswoman says tonight’s results show Romney has been “exposed as being out of touch with the middle class, and voters are seeing that he lives by another set of rules. He’s refused to level with voters, and now he’s in trouble. Anyone who goes into a state with a significant double digit lead yet ends up losing that support in a week, is someone who is failing to connect.”

Read Wasserman Schultz’s entire statement after the jump…

(more…)

LAKE BUENA VISTA — With a symbol of Florida’s tourism industry as his backdrop, President Obama today declared that “America is open for business” for foreign tourists who want to spend money here but are hindered by delays and red tape.

Obama announced that his administration is taking steps to increase international tourism, including processing more visas from China and Brazil. He made the announcement on Main Street USA in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom with the iconic Cinderella Castle in the background. The area was shut down to regular park patrons and open only to invited guests during Obama’s remarks.

“More money spent by more tourists means more businesses can hire more workers. It’s a pretty simple formula. And that’s why we’re all here today — to tell the world that America is open for business,” said Obama, who spoke for about 15 minutes.

(more…)

Rick Perry’s departure from the GOP presidential race is almost certain to help Newt Gingrich in the Sunshine State’s upcoming primary as many of Perry’s conservative supporters – including the next Florida Senate president – defect to the former Speaker of the House.

But how much that matters depends on how well Gingrich, distrusted by many tea party activists, performs in South Carolina this weekend, Republican legislative leaders say.

Senate President-Designate Don Gaetz, a Perry backer, said he’s leaning towards Gingrich, not because the Texas governor has endorsed his former opponent, but because he, like many others, believes Gingrich would handily outshine President Obama in debates.

“I’ve respected Newt Gingrich for years,” said Gaetz, R-Niceville. Gaetz said he’s read Gingrich’s books and met with the historian on several occasions, “more than just casually.”

But, he said, “I’m happy with either Romney or Gingrich but I’m leaning toward Gingrich,” although “I can support Romney and support him with enthusiasm.”

Gingrich’s performance in South Carolina will influence how relevant Florida will be in determining the Republican candidate, some political insiders, including Gaetz, say.

The outcome of Florida’s winner-take-all-delegates primary could whittle the race down to contest between Romney and Gingrich or crown Romney as the all-but-inevitable nominee.

“It’s important for Florida to be relevant. So for parochial reasons, I hope that the contest goes on through the end of January at least because I want Florida to be important in selecting the Republican nominee,” Gaetz said. “So Gingrich would have to do well in South Carolina to keep hope alive among those who are unsatisfied with Romney.”

Perry dropping out of the race may have little impact on Florida voters, said Sen. John Thrasher, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida and Mitt Romney supporter.

“I don’t think it makes a lot of difference. I think Newt’s where he is. I think Gov. Romney’s where he is. Most people still believe Gov. Romney’s the best choice, particularly in Florida. He’s got an incredible organization. He’s got a lot of troops on the ground all over the state. I think he’s got the resources to really put forth his message by Jan. 31,” Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, said.

Perry made the right decision, Gaetz said.

“There comes a point when you look around and you realize that it’s hopeless. And I think that Gov. Perry has gotten to that point,” he said.

LAKE BUENA VISTA — As President Obama prepares to announce a tourism initiative at Walt Disney World today, Republicans say the official visit is really just an effort to shore up his sagging poll numbers in the critical Sunshine State.

“It looks like our president is at it again with yet another taxpayer-paid campaign day,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus this morning on a conference call. “It’s amazing that this president seems to find himself every day in battleground states across America paid for by the taxpayers. He doesn’t seem to end up in Montana or Nebraska very often…It’s a campaign trip to a very important battleground state of Florida where the president is doing very poorly.”

Obama carried Florida with 51 percent in 2008, but polls show him running even with Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney now. Obama’s job disapproval rating has been above 50 percent in the last four Quinnipiac University polls of Florida voters going back to September.

“His approval rating in Florida looks like one of the drops in Space Mountain,” Priebus said.

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry joined Priebus on the call and accused Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who’s up for reelection this year, of “running scared” because Nelson is attending events in Sarasota and Manatee counties today and won’t be joining Obama. A Nelson spokesman on Wednesday said accusations that Nelson is ducking the president are “bologna.”

Republican Gov. Rick Scott has disapproval ratings about even with Obama in Florida.

“He’s not on the ballot, No. 1. The president’s on the ballot,” said Priebus, who also said he thinks Scott is doing a good job.

Gov. Rick Scott supports U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar‘s ban on the importation of Burmese pythons and three other non-native constrictive snakes, the governor said this afternoon.

MSNBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd asked Scott and Salazar about the snake ban at an Everglades Summit in Tallahassee this afternoon.

“People laugh about this but…it’s crazy,” said Todd, a Miami native. “This issue of my idiot old neighbors in South Florida. They import these pets then get scared of them and dump them in the Everglades.”

The pythons are “injurious and they are dangerous,” Salazar said.

Salazar said the python ban is part of a comprehensive approach to cleaning up the Everglades.

“We need to make sure the investments that we’re making…that they’re not for naught,” he said.

The invasive snakes are killing native habitat and wildlife, Salazar said.

“We need to make sure that what we are doing is comprehensive,” he said. “We need to look at the Everglades as an entire ecosystem.”

Critics said Salazar’s ban doesn’t go far enough because he only targeted four of nine dangerous snakes.

“We tailored our regulation to go after the present danger that we have in the Everglades and right now it’s the Burmese python, which is making up habitat with tens of thousands of Burmese pythons that are out there,” Salazar said after the meeting.

Salazar said his agency his “going after those species that present the greatest threat right now” and that five other species are being scrutinized scientifically and for the economic implications of banning those as well.

“But these four are the first step and we have the other five under consideration,” he said.

Scott said he supports the new federal rule, especially because Congress has failed for three years to pass U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s legislation that would have outlawed pythons.

Nelson praised Salazar and blasted critics for trying to “delay and obstruct” the new rule.

“These giant constrictor snakes do not belong in the Everglades and they do not belong in people’s back yards. Not only are they upsetting the ecological balance because they’re at the top of the food chain. They even attack alligators and consume them,” Nelson said.

(more…)

While his rivals have yet to launch a TV campaign in Florida before the Jan. 31 primary, Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney is airing his fourth ad in the state (three in English and one Spanish-language spot).

This spot counters criticism from Newt Gingrich and others of Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital by mentioning three successful businesses Bain helped — Staples, Sports Authority and Steel Dynamics — and by likening the Bain critics to President Obama.

“We expected the Obama administration to put free markets on trial,” says the ad’s narrator, who then quotes an editorial from The Wall Street Journal (no great fan of Romney’s) saying the Republican Bain critics “are embarrassing themselves.”

A new poll commissioned by the Everglades Foundation shows President Obama and GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney in a dead heat in Florida.

Obama gets 46 percent and Romney 45 percent, with 9 percent undecided, in the poll conducted by the Republican firm The Tarrance Group. The poll of 607 likely voters has a 4.1 percent margin of error. Obama holds a 44-39 lead among independents and a 50-41 lead among Hispanic voters. Romney holds a 54-37 lead among white voters and leads among voters who are 45 and older while Obama leads with voters 44 and younger.

Voters were asked if “funding for Everglades restoration should be increased because protecting the water supply is critical to the future economic success of the state” or if “funding for Everglades restoration must continue to be cut because the state is facing a massive budget crisis and cuts must be made to every program.”

By a 64-to-28 percent margin, voters favored increasing Everglades funding. That’s up from 51-to-41 percent support for more Everglades spending in February 2011.

The poll was released today to coincide with the opening of a two-day Everglades summit in Tallahassee.

MIAMI — Newt Gingrich visited the heart of Miami’s Cuban-American community this morning and said that as president he’d like to create a “Cuban spring that is even more exciting than the Arab spring” on the communist island.

Gingrich has faced harsh criticism from many conservatives this week for accusing GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney of profiting by “looting” other businesses and laying off workers when Romney headed the private equity firm Bain Capital.

Gingrich sought to regain the offensive on the issue this morning, saying he’s merely questioning Romney’s claim that companies Bain invested in created more than 100,000 jobs.

“I’ve gotten huge pushback. Some of you have seen this on television. So let me be clear, to question a presidential candidate’s claims to have created jobs is not to attack capitalism, it’s to question a candidate. The idea that some candidate can make a claim and then yell foul when you ask him to prove it is just silly. If he can’t stand up today and defend his claim, how’s he going to stand up to Obama in the fall,” Gingrich said.

(more…)

Sounding more like a general election nominee than a candidate slogging through a crowded primary field, Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney ripped President Obama‘s handling of the economy and the federal budget before a crowd of about 400 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.

“We’ve had three years now with unemployment above 8 percent,” Romney said. “You remember three years ago the newly elected president said ‘Let me borrow $787 billion, I’ll keep unemployment below 8 percent.’ It hasn’t been below since. This president has failed the American people.”

The 8 percent “promise,” frequently mentioned by Republican candidates, is a reference to a projection by Obama’s economic advisers in January 2009 that a stimulus package would keep unemployment below 8 percent and the jobless rate would near 9 percent otherwise.

The unemployment rate, which was 7.8 percent in January 2009, peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 and stood at 8.5 percent in December.

“The president’s run out of ideas. And he’s running out of excuses. And in 2012, with your help, he’s run out of time,” Romney said.

The crowd spontaneously broke into chants of “Mitt, Mitt, Mitt” at one point during Romney’s remarks, which lasted about 20 minutes. The casually dressed Romney spent at least as much time afterward shaking hands and signing autographs.

Romney this evening is expected to raise $1 million or more tonight in Palm Beach at a fundraiser at the oceanfront home of Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.

Organizers for today’s rally set up a room in the convention center with a capacity of 400. That number was reached, and the campaign said about 100 others listened to Romney’s remarks in an adjoining room.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater introduced Romney. Former Republican U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw of Fort Lauderdale was on hand.

Perennial swing state Florida is too close to call in a hypothetical general election match-up between President Obama and either Republican Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.

A Senate race between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican U.s. Rep. Connie Mack would also be a virtual tie, the new poll says.

The poll shows Obama, who carried Florida with 51 percent in 2008, continues to have underlying job-approval and favorability problems in the Sunshine State. Fifty-four percent of Florida voters disapprove of the job he’s doing, 52 percent say he doesn’t deserve to be reelected and 50 percent say they have an unfavorable opinion of him.

(more…)

Gov. Rick Scott ripped the Obama administration Friday for rejecting Florida’s application for Race to the Top education dollars, deriding the decision as stemming from the state’s refusal to accept the money “with strings attached.”

Nine states were authorized by federal officials to share $500 million in grant money aimed at accelerating  improvements in early childhood programs. California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington state will get the dollars to make strides in pre-kindergarten education.

Scott said he suspected Florida was turned down because the state did not commit to continuing programs after federal dollars expired — a move he said was aimed at avoiding making state taxpayers pick up the tab for new government services.

 ”When Florida’s application was submitted for the grant in October, we made it clear that we would not accept grant money with strings attached, additional state spending obligations, or requirements that created new burdensome regulations on private providers,” Scott said.

 ” We stuck to our principles, and unfortunately our insistence against irresponsibly using one-time dollars for recurring government programs did not win the favor of the administration in Washington,” he added.

Race to the Top, the centerpiece of Obama’s education policies, has proved a thorny issue for Republicans. In the GOP presidential field, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a staunch opponent, while Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, is a fan.

The funding approach also supports many of the early-learning measures promoted by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and state legislative leaders.

Still, Scott defied tea party activists in October when he submitted the state’s application.  But he was lured by the prospect of winning as much as $100 million in federal cash for the state — in a year when he wants to pump-up Florida K-12 spending by $1 billion.

Scott insisted, though, that he wouldn’t go along with federal officials dictating terms for how the state spent the money.

Florida won a $700 million federal grant under the program last year, in its second attempt at landing the cash. But Scott has pushed back millions of dollars in aid tied to Obama’s health care overhaul. The state’s Tea Party Network, also openly demanded in the fall that he steer clear of the Race to the Top effort.

But for all the line-in-the-sand drawing, Scott in September agreed to some conditions in advance of the application.

At Scott’s urging, the Legislative Budget Commission accepted a $3.4 million federal grant under the Affordable Care Act to provide home visiting services to at-risk families. Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, was among those urging against the move, saying the program’s mission was murky, and he feared it could result in the state facing additional costs.

Gov. Rick Scott hailed the Obama administration’s approval Thursday of a two-year extension of the Medicaid managed-care effort underway in Broward and four other Florida counties since 2006.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved the state’s bid to continue the pilot project, which supporters and some analysts have credited with saving money and improving patient health care. But the HMO-styled coverage has been criticized by many treated within the program, who complain about being forced to change doctors, travel far distances to see specialty physicians or change prescription coverage.

Along with Broward, such coverage is in place in Baker, Clay, Nassau and Duval counties.

Scott and the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration see Thursday’s approval as setting the stage for a future federal OK on the statewide managed care plan approved last spring by the Republican-led Legislature.

That plan, which has already drawn tough questioning from CMS reviewers, would shift virtually all of Florida’s 2.9 million Medicaid recipients into managed care, beginning in 2013.

“I want to publicly thank the staff at the Agency for Health Care Administration for all their hard work and perseverance in negotiating the extension of our Medicaid pilot program,” Scott said.

“ Today’s approval of the program’s extension through June of 2014 illustrates the federal government’s recognition of the great successes we’ve experienced. We’ve seen higher quality in administration of care, produced cost savings and consumers in the pilot have found improved access for Medicaid recipients,” he concluded.

Just days before Florida holds its first election under a voter law blasted by Democrats, a Senate panel announced Monday it will hold a hearing in Tampa to gauge public reaction to the new measure.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson spearheaded the call for fellow Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois to bring his Judiciary subcommittee on Constitution and Civil Rights to the state. The panel is scheduled to hold a hearing Jan. 27 in Tampa, four days before Florida’s Republican presidential primary.

Tampa’s Hillsborough County is among five Florida counties where voting law changes must be approved by the federal Justice Department because  past racial conditions threatened voting rights.  Nelson said, “The community has many diverse groups of voters that might be affected the most under Florida’s new law, like seniors, young voters and minorities.  One recent and credible study says new laws like Florida’s could suppress millions of votes nationwide in the 2012 election.”

Democrats have pushed hard against voter laws approved in Florida and 13 other Republican-ruled states which they say are aimed at blunting Democratic turnout in next year’s presidential contest.

 Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Davie, earlier this month announced that  the party has launched a new website www.protectingthevote.org aimed at informing voters of the new standards — and rallying support for having them overturned.

Florida’s law is already the subject of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and voting rights organizations.

Supporters of the state’s new law deny any partisan motivation, instead saying the stricter standards are merely intended to reduce the risk of voter-fraud.

The new measure reduces the number of days available for early voting, while also imposes tighter reporting standards for third-party groups that register voters.  But a study earlier this year by the Brennan Center for Justice found that Florida’s law is part of a larger mosaic of stricter standards which could keep 5 million people nationwide from voting next year.

 

 

An NBC News/Marist poll released Sunday shows President Obama with a roughly even approval/disapproval rating in the crucial Sunshine State. A few days earlier, Quinnipiac University released a poll showing Obama’s approval ratings deep underwater.

The Marist survey of 2,119 registered Florida voters, conducted Dec. 4-7, shows 46 percent approving of the job Obama is doing as president, with 45 percent disapproving — essentially a tie given the poll’s 2.1 percent margin of error. That’s an improvement from October, when the same poll found 41 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving.

Quinnipiac University’s polls are bleaker for Obama. A Nov. 28-Dec. 5 Quinnipiac poll of 1,226 Florida voters shows only 41 percent approving of the way Obama is handling his job, with 54 percent disapproving. That’s essentially unchanged from early November, when Quinnipiac found Obama with a 41 percent approval score and 52 percent disapproval.

Both the latest Quinnipiac and Marist polls show Newt Gingrich with a double-digit lead in Florida’s Republican presidential primary race. Quinnipiac’s last poll had Gingrich at 35 percent and Mitt Romney at 22 percent among Republicans. Marist shows Gingrich with a 39-26 lead over Romney among Republican voters and a 42-27 edge among likey GOP voters. When leaners are pushed to support one candidate or another, Marist’s poll shows Gingrich with a 44-29 edge among likey GOP voters.

Newt Gingrich has opened up a double-digit lead over Mitt Romney in Florida’s Republican primary, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.

Gingrich is the preferred candidate of 35 percent of Republicans in the poll. Romney is favored by 22 percent. Ron Paul is a distant third at 8 percent. The poll, conducted Nov. 28-Dec. 5, has a 4.3 percent margin of error. A month ago, Herman Cain topped the GOP field in Florida with 27 percent, followed by Romney’s 21 percent and Gingrich’s 17 percent.

At the same stage four years ago, Quinnipiac’s polling showed Rudy Giuliani with an 18-point lead in Florida while eventual Florida winner and GOP nominee John McCain was a distant fourth.

The newest poll suggests Romney is a slightly stronger candidate than Gingrich in a general election matchup against President Obama. Romney holds a 45-to-42 percent lead over Obama among all Florida voters, while Obama tops Gingrich by a 46-to-44 percent margin. The general election poll of Floridians has a 2.8 percent margin of error.

Fifty-four percent of Floridians disapprove of the way Obama is doing his job, with 41 percent approving. Gov. Rick Scott has a 52 percent disapproval score, with 33 percent approving.

Democrats continued Thursday to blast new voter laws in Florida and 13 other states which they say have been crafted by Republican leaders to blunt turnout and damage President Obama’s re-election bid next year.

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Davie, said the party has launched a new website www.protectingthevote.org aimed at informing voters of the new standards — and rallying support for having them overturned. Florida’s law is already the subject of  a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and voting rights organizations.

A U.S. Senate subcommittee also plans to hold a hearing in Florida in coming weeks on the new law, following a request by Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who said the state’s new standard violates “basic rights.”

In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Wasserman Schultz said Republicans are out to “rig elections.”

“By now, it’s well known they’re determined to roll back the right to vote and skew the 2012 presidential election,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Democrats and their allies have blistered the new Florida law, which reduces turnout by reducing the number of days available for early voting, while also imposing tighter reporting standards for third-party groups that register voters.

 A study earlier this year by the Brennan Center for Justice found the new laws could keep 5 million people nationwide from voting next year.

Supporters of the measures deny any partisan motivation, instead saying the stricter standards are intended to reduce voter-fraud.

Wasserman Schultz, though, isn’t buying that.

A 74-page report released Thursday by the Democratic Party concluded, “every major investigation into voter fraud in the United States has arrived at the same conclusion: There is almost none. The real fraud has been the use of baseless allegations to change election laws in ways that will lead to partisan Republican gains.”

 

 

 

 

Launching his campaign by deriding rival Bill Nelson as one of President Obama’s “lockstep liberals,” Republican U.S. Senate contender Connie Mack is expecting to be picketed by what his office staff called  ”loony liberals” Thursday.

Mack’s namesake father punctured Democratic opponent Buddy Mackay 23 years ago with the phrase, “Hey Buddy, you’re liberal.” The son’s days-old campaign seems to be sticking to a similar script.

Southwest Florida supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement plan to protest at 1 p.m. today outside Mack’s Cape Coral office. But once Mack staffers got hold of the rally’s electronic sign-up sheet, they fired out a press release, tying the demonstration to MoveOn.org, the left-leaning activist group founded by billionaire George Soros.

“It’s appalling that George Soros and the loony liberals of MoveOn.org are protecting Bill Nelson by staging a sit-in protest at Congressman Mack’s office,” said David James, Mack’s deputy campaign manager. ”Three days after Connie Mack entered the race for U.S. Senate, these leftists are scared of the Mack candidacy and Connie’s message of freedom, security and prosperity.  Florida has had enough of the loony left and will bring an end to their big government, big taxation and big spending agenda next November.”

Polls show Mack is the frontrunner in five-person Republican field. At least one survey also shows him with enough current support to knock off Nelson, if Mack wins the GOP primary.

A new Public Policy Polling survey also shows Mack well out front in the Republican contest. It also examines the potency of name identification, but doesn’t attribute all of Mack’s success to having a well-known monicker.

The poll found Mack’s name is recognized by 57 percent of Republican voters in Florida, about double his nearest rival, short-term Senate-appointee George LeMieux. Others in the race were far back.

But the survey also found that voters familiar with the other candidates, still liked Mack best. 

“Name recognition is certainly an important part of the equation, but even when you account for that Mack’s well ahead,” PPP concluded. “And he has strong numbers across the ideological lines of the GOP, getting 44 percent with ‘very conservative’ voters, 43 percent with ’somewhat conservative’ ones, and 32 percent with moderates.”