THE VILLAGES — Mitt Romney took another shot at Republican presidential rival Rick Perry‘s position on Social Security today but directed most of his salvos at President Obama during an appearance here this afternoon.

He also weighed in on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie‘s decision not to enter the race and on Sen. Marco Rubio‘s prospects as a vice presidential candidate.

Romney spoke to a crowd of about 250 people in this heavily Republican Central Florida retiree community. About 40 Democrats in blue T-shirts — a large turnout for this area — stood outside holding signs critical of Romney.

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Republican Mitt Romney is returning to Florida today and renewing accusations that rival Rick Perry is a threat to Social Security.

Romney is scheduled to visit The Villages — a large, Republican-tilted retiree bastion in Central Florida that’s a must stop for GOP candidates. The former Massachusetts governor will be conducting an afternoon town hall-style meeting.

A new video released by the Romney campaign accuses Perry of wanting to end Social Security as a federal program and let the individual states handle senior benefits. Perry said during the last GOP debate he didn’t favor such an idea, only giving state employees the option of enrolling in state-run retirement plans. Click here to see PolitiFact’s take on the dispute.

Talking tough on illegal immigration helped Rick Scott score an upset Republican primary win in last year’s Florida governor’s race. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is betting the issue will sour GOP primary voters in Florida and elsewhere on Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who supports granting in-state college tuition rates to children of illegal immigrants in Texas.

A new web video from the Romney campaign associates Perry’s position with President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and features a clip of former Mexican President Vicente Fox praising Perry for the Texas policy.

There’s also a clip of Perry from last week’s GOP debate in Orlando saying opponents of the program “don’t have a heart” — a statement that angered many conservatives as much as the program itself.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott earned some national face-time Thursday morning, co-hosting CNBC-TV’s Squawk Box — using the program to make a pitch for businesses to come to Florida and peppering a few guests with questions.

On set, Scott shared a screen with guest including Adrian Jones, general manager of the new Legoland opening in Central Florida, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the presidential contender and Scott’s rival for the self-bestowed title of  jobs governor.

Scott tossed a few questions out to the guests. And he also used the big platform to get his own points across about the economy and governing.

Among them:

On dealing with federal environmental regulators: “My goal is to build a relationship,” Scott said, saying he has been trying to work with the feds on an acceptable Everglades policy and water standards.

On Florida’s economic rebound: “One of the things we have to have in Florida is more manufacturing,” Scott said, saying tourism is a given, but producing goods will yield jobs.

On Europe’s debt crisis: “Stop spending money,” Scott said, likening the Continent to truculent teen-agers.

On cutting unemployment benefits, as Florida has:  ”You can’t afford it,” Scott said of businesses struggling to pay unemployment benefits. “Don’t give companies a reason not to hire people.”

Scott also came close to his own “Ponzi-scheme” moment, when he chimed in on Perry’s defense of his characterization of Social Security as effectively a criminal fraud because it pays current beneficiaries with money from those new in the system.

Scott said the Florida Retirement System also is less than fully funded, although he left out the part about how it has been declared actuarially sound by state and national analysts, the latest blessing coming just this week from state economists.

“You’ve got to make it sustainable,” Scott said of the FRS, and Social Security. Scott reiterated that he still wants to see the pension plan disappear, and be replaced with a 401(k)-style plan for government workers.

 

BOYNTON BEACH — U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, won’t reveal if he has a favorite in the Republican presidential race, but during a town hall meeting tonight he weighed in on Herman Cain‘s Florida straw poll victory and 9-9-9 tax plan, Michele Bachmann‘s polling swoon, Ron Paul‘s Federal Reserve bashing and in-state tuition benefits for the children of illegal immigrants as championed by Rick Perry.

West also told reporters he expects Florida to be influential in presidential politics regardless of when it schedules its 2012 primary.

West also got a dig in on former Gov. Charlie Crist, the Republican-turned-independent who has contributed to one of West’s Democratic rivals.

Find out what West had to say after the jump…

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Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney‘s campaign announced its Florida staffers this morning with Molly Donlin, a veteran Republican operative who worked on Rudy Giuliani‘s 2008 Florida campaign, serving as Romney’s state director.

Romney was second to Texas Gov. Rick Perry in a Quinnipiac poll of Florida Republicans last week before Perry bombed in a Thursday night debate and Saturday’s Republican Party of Florida straw poll in Orlando. But Romney, who announced in June he wouldn’t actively participate in the straw poll, didn’t immediately benefit from the Perry swoon. He finished a distant third in the straw poll with 14 percent behind Herman Cain and Perry.

Check out the Romney Florida team after the jump…

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Gov. Rick Scott drew cheers from Presidency 5 delegates Saturday, saying he expected the winner of the Florida Republican primary to emerge as the party’s nominee — with a key first step on that path being the upcoming straw poll.

“You will send a very strong signal about who will be America’s choice,” Scott told the 3,000 delegates. ”As Florida goes, so goes the nation. And as you go, so goes Florida.”

Scott pointed out that victories in straw polls at earlier installments of the party convention gave an important push to Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole.  Later though, speaking to reporters, the governor conceded that Saturday’s outcome may not prove so decisive.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is close to Scott. is narrowly leading in Florida over second-place Mitt Romney, according to a poll this week. But Perry stumbled in Thursday night’s nationally televised debate, and his struggle to explain his stance on illegal immigration seems to have cost him support among at least a portion of  P-5 atttendees.

“There’s all these expectations games, I didn’t have to deal with that in my race,” Scott said. “If he doesn’t win, he’ll be frustrated. But I think the positives are that whoever wins, it shows what people in this state are thinking about. If you want people to be active in your campaign, these are the issues you need to focus on, and have a message.

“I personally believe that the most important message is going to be jobs,” Scott added. “But we’ll see….this is the real group of activists, the people who care about this race today.”

While Florida delegates may not send as clear a message as they have in past conventions, Scott drew cheers from the crowd with a direct attack on President Obama. He recalled the 2000 presidential election, marked by hanging-chad and voter confusion.

“There were all those Palm Beach voters who couldn’t believe they voted for Pat Buchanan,” Scott remembered. “Well, since 2008, I’ve met people all over the country who can’t believe they’ve voted for Barack Obama. I’m absolutely convinced, they’ll get it right next year.”

Scott described Saturday’s speech as among the three biggest of his short political career. His inaugural address, his State of the State speech to open this year’s Legislature also are up there, the governor said.

For Scott, the speech also placed the one-time political outsider firmly within Florida’s Republican establishment.

Scott also brought many in the crowd to their feet by boasting that he had not wavered from his stance that “businesses create new jobs, not government and for “sticking to my principles.”

“I did not run to be voted most popular, I ran so that Florida could be most likely to succeed,” Scott said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is clearly staking his hopes on a strong showing in Saturday’s straw poll at the Republican Party’s Presidency 5 convention in Orlando.

And he’s got his fans, including a couple of Pasco County activists who lined up at 5:30 a.m. this morning for a breakfast session with the Republican contender that was slated to start at 7 a.m. One said she felt obliged to defend her favorite candidate, who a poll this week put as the Florida frontrunner.

“Sure, he may not be the perfect candidate, but who is?” said Julie Hassler, of Wesley Chapel, president of Club Politico, an Hispanic-voter organization. “But I feel he’s like a boxer who’s had to take some low blows, because the other candidate’s know he’s in the lead.”

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ORLANDO — Today’s Republican Party of Florida presidential straw poll is shaping up as major test for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who came here Thursday as his party’s frontrunner but stirred doubts among many Republicans after a stumbling performance in a nationally televised debate Thursday night.

Mitt Romney and other candidates have left town before today’s “Presidency 5″ straw poll, but Perry stuck around this morning to speak to about 1,000 Republican delegates at a breakfast gathering.

He recalled being lieutenant governor of Texas in 2000 while the world waited for the Florida recount to determine whether then Texas Gov. George W. Bush would become president.

“For about a month and a half, my hopes of being the governor of the state of Texas were hanging in the balance. And here we are 11 years later and I’ve got all my hopes on Florida again,” Perry said.

“There are a number of folks whose campaigns have spurned this tradition of the Florida straw poll, and I think that’s a big mistake. I think the Florida straw poll is very important,” Perry said.

ORLANDO — The first two Republican presidential candidates to address the Conservative Political Action Conference here this morning — Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney — got applause when they criticized frontrunner Rick Perry’s stance on illegal immigration.

Texas Gov. Perry was pounded by his rivals in a nationally televised debate Thursday night for not supporting a fence along the entire U.S.-Mexico border and for backing in-school college tuition benefits for the children of illegal immigrants in Texas.

“I will build a fence along our southern border against illegal immigration. And we will not have taxpayer subsidized benefits for illegal immigrants or their children,” Bachmann told the crowd of more than 2,000 conservative activists.

Romney took issue with Perry’s contention that opponents of the Texas tuition program “don’t have a heart.”

Said Romney: “I think if you’re opposed to illegal immigration, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have a heart. It means that you have a heart and a brain.”

Republican presidential candidates tuned up for Thursday night’s nationally televised debate from Orlando by speaking to crowd of about 3,000 at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event.

The coalition is a Republican-allied advocacy organization founded by Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition later tarnished by his involvement with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Reed told the crowd he hopes to have coalition offices in all 67 Florida counties by next year’s election, more than doubling its current number.

“We’re not going to rest until a U-Haul is pulled up in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” Reed said, setting the tone for the red-meat themes that carried through most candidate speeches.

Some of the contenders layered a few religious references into their talks. Ronald Reagan also was frequently mentioned, with several candidates recalling his biblically-rooted “city on a hill” speech.

“When a people turn their back on what history and scripture says is true, that’s when a nation becomes a byword,” Michele Bachmann told the crowd.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum drew applause for assuring that, “We can build a great society from the bottom up.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia blistered Obama for advancing “class warfare and socialism.”

“President Obama is the best food stamp president in U.S. history,” Gingrich said. “But with your help, I would like to be the best paycheck president in U.S. history.”

The frontrunning contenders, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, stuck to familiar campaign pitches — but threw few rhetorical bombs.

Romney ridiculed President Obama for drawing his approach to governing from European countries — possibly, he said, a product of Obama, “growing up abroad.” He also promised to, “move the country away from Obamaism.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry praised the importance of faith and family in his life. But he also tried to skewer Obama by condemning the growing influence of the federal government, education policies, and the administration’s assurance that the economy is rebounding.

 ”When one-in-six Americans cannot find work, that is not an economic recovery, Mr. President, that is economic disaster,” Perry said.

 

 

ORLANDO — Fresh polling data from the retiree bastion of Florida suggests that hammering Republican presidential frontrunner Rick Perry on Social Security is a good strategy for GOP rival Mitt Romney — if they were running in a general election instead of a Republican presidential primary.

Romney has criticized Perry’s stance on Social Security in the last two Republican debates and continued to blast the Texan on the issue Wednesday on the eve of tonight’s nationally televised GOP debate here.

A Quinnipiac University poll released this morning shows Perry leading Romney among Florida GOP voters by a 28-to-22 percent margin. The poll shows Perry’s Social Security views aren’t popular with Floridians as a whole, but aren’t hurting him with Republicans.

Perry’s characterization of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” for younger workers is called unfair by 58 percent of all Floridians, with only 33 percent calling it fair.

Among Republicans, however, 52 percent say “Ponzi scheme” is a fair way to describe Social Security and its long-term financing issues.

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Rick Perry is leading Mitt Romney among Florida Republicans, with some potent forces propelling him forward, according to the new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

In head-to-head matchups with Romney, the Texas governor is the clear favorite of Republican voters in the state who consider themselves tea party supporters or evangelicals. Perry tops Romney 55-35 percent among tea party advocates and 52-34 percent among evangelicals, who have long been uneasy with Romney, a Mormon.

Although Quinnipiac found Romney is currently best positioned among all voters to beat President Obama, the assistant director of the university’s polling institute, Peter Brown, said he didn’t expect Perry to go out of his way to woo independents or moderates in tonight’s Fox-News television debate among the GOP contenders.

Perry’s hardline conservative colors — perhaps underscored by his condemning Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” — is generally supported by Florida Republicans. Fifty-two percent of poll respondents said “Ponzi scheme” was a good way to characterize Social Security.

The survey “says that Rick Perry has a small lead. But when you do a couple of things, his lead gets better,” Brown said.

Perry is up 28-22 percent among Florida Republicans. But his lead over Romney swells to 9 percent if Sarah Palin doesn’t run. In a two-man face-off, Perry tops Romny 46-38 percent, the survey found.

Tonight’s Fox-News debate from the Orlando-Orange County Convention Center will be aired from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., and features nine GOP presidential candidates. 

Except for Perry and Romney, the remainder of the field draws only single digits among Republicans. Also, Perry is the leading second-choice among supporters of the other candidates — a key factor in a race where many also-rans are expected to fold at least after the early primaries next year.

And while Perry may be struggling against Obama at the moment, the survey shows Republicans are incredibly motivated to win back the White House next fall.

Sixty-three percent of Republicans say they are more enthusiastic about voting in next year’s presidential election than usual, compared with only 28 percent of Democrats who say they are fired up and ready to go.

“At this point, it appears President Obama is motivating Republicans and Republican-leaners to be excited about voting against him,” Brown said.

 

 

Rick Perry leads Mitt Romney by a 28-to-22 percent margin among Republican Florida voters as nine GOP presidential candidates prepare for a nationally televised debate tonight in Orlando, a Quinnipiac University poll released this morning says.

While the Republicans duke it out, President Obama‘s approval ratings continue to slide. Florida voters disapprove of the job Obama is doing by a 57-to-39 percent margin. That’s the president’s worst score in any state where Quinnipiac conducts polls.

In potential November 2012 matchups, Romney leads Obama in Florida by a 47-to-40 percent margin while Perry and Obama are essentially tied, with Obama holding a 44-to-42 percent edge over the Texas governor that’s within the poll’s 3.1 percent margin of error.

Romney held a 23-to-13 percent lead over Perry in an early-August Quinnipiac poll taken just before Perry formally launched his campaign.

Romney, who has slammed Perry on Social Security in the last two Republican debates, continued to do so during an appearance in Miami on Wednesday as he and Perry campaigned in South Florida on the eve of the Orlando debate.

MIAMI — There were several mentions of Ronald Reagan this morning when Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney held a town hall-style meeting with about 80 people at a hotel ballroom.

Gipper references are common in GOP primary settings. Not so common are approving mentions of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the New Deal architect who plays a heavy in Republican frontrunner Rick Perry‘s book Fed Up.

Romney managed both while taking a swipe at Perry’s Social Security stance.

“Ronald Reagan… was a believer in Social Security,” Romney said. “I believe in Social Security. There are tens of millions of Americans who rely upon Social Security to meet their needs. I want to protect it. I want to save it. I want to make sure that it’s there for coming generations. I think it’s a good thing. I don’t think everything that comes out of Democrats is good. But this came out of FDR, I think it’s pretty darn good. And I’m going to make sure, like Ronald Reagan, we keep it.”

TAMPA — Before eight Republican presidential hopefuls take the stage here tonight for a CNN/Tea Party Express debate, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was here to offer a “prebuttal” to the event.

“Tonight the Republicans will worship at the altar of the tea party. They will continue to try to out-extreme and out-right wing each other. They will continue to ask nothing of the wealthiest and most fortunate Americans,” said Wasserman Schultz, a congresswoman from Broward County.

Asked about Republican frontrunner Rick Perry and his contention that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme” for younger workers, Wasserman Schultz said, “I just don’t see how someone with his radical point of view is going to get a lot of mainstream support here in Florida. This is a right-down-the-middle state.”

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After last week’s Rick Perry-Mitt Romney Social Security dustup, Republican presidential candidates are set to debate again in Tampa tonight. The Democratic National Committee is welcoming them to senior-heavy Florida with a video blasting Perry and Romney and the rest of the GOP field on Social Security and Medicare.

“Now they’re coming to Florida – where millions of seniors rely on Social Security and Medicare to survive,” the narrator says. “The Republican field: a gamble seniors can’t afford.”

Here’s another Social Security and Medicare scare piece that takes longer than 30 seconds to digest: the annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report saying long-term costs for both programs are “not sustainable under currently scheduled financing.”

The report projects Medicare will only be able to provide 90 percent of promised benefits beginning in 2024 and Social Security will only be able to deliver 75 percent of promised benefits beginning in 2036 unless fixes are made for both programs.

The ACLU of Florida said Wednesday it has sued the Gov. Rick Scott administration in federal court to overturn the state’s new law requiring mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients.

The lawsuit was filed in Orlando on behalf of Luis Lebron, a 35-year-old Orlando man, Navy veteran and University of Central Florida student. Lebron and his four-year-old son were declared eligible for benefits through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, but Lebron refused to take the required drug test and has not received aid.

“It is a public policy that really rests on ugly stereotypes,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida ACLU.

Florida’s new law took effect July 1. Since then, the state’s Department of Children & Families reports that about 2.5 percent of applicants have tested positive for drugs and were denied personal benefits, although their family members still qualify.

But in its lawsuit, the ACLU maintains the requirement violates constitutional safeguards against unreasonable search and seizure by the government. The only other state to implement a similar policy, Michigan, had its drug-testing law overturned a decade ago, according to ACLU attorneys.

DCF Secretary David Wilkins, a Scott appointee, is named as defendant in the lawsuit.

The ACLU earlier sued Scott over his executive order requiring drug-testing of all new state hires and random screening of current state employees. Scott suspended the order in May for agencies other than the Department of Corrections, although he insisted the freeze would only be in place until the lawsuit was decided.

Texas Gov. and Republican presidential frontrunner Rick Perry has a series of Florida money events lined up to coincide with a pair of Republican presidential debates in the state, according to a “Sunshine State Kickoff” invitation making the rounds.

He’ll be in Tampa on Monday with other GOP White House hopefuls for a CNN/Tea Party Express debate.

Then come a series of five $1,000-a-head fundraisers with $2,500 VIP receptions that include photo ops with Perry. The still-forming host committee for the events includes House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, and former Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp. Palm Beach Countians on Perry’s finance team include Palm Beach Town Councilman Bill Diamond (formerly a Michele Bachmann, Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani supporter).

On Tuesday, Sept. 13, Perry will attend a fundraising breakfast in Tampa and lunch in Miami.

The following week, Perry will attend a $1,000-a-plate lunch on Sept. 21 in Fort Lauderdale followed by an evening money event at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach that PostOnPolitics.com first reported Saturday.

On Sept. 22, Perry and other Republican candidates participate in another nationally televised debate, this one from Orlando as party of the Republican Party of Florida Presidency 5 event.

Perry also has an evening fundraiser scheduled for Sept. 23 in Orlando.

LUTZ — Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann will extend her Florida campaign swing into Monday because Hurricane Irene scuttled plans to travel north, a Bachmann spokeswoman said today.

The Minnesota congresswoman attended a church service with about 3,000 people at Idlewild Baptist Church near Tampa this morning and plans to attend a rally in Sarasota this afternoon. She will be in South Florida Monday, spokeswoman Alice Stewart said, but specific events haven’t been announced.

Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, sat in the seventh row of the massive church auditorium and were introduced by Pastor Ken Whitten. After the service, she greeted church members, signed autographs and posed for snapshots in a lobby bigger than most shopping mall food courts.

“Florida’s an extremely important state for who will be chosen the next president of the United States, so we intend to be here meeting as many people as we can,” Bachmann told reporters in a brief appearance before boarding her campaign bus.

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