MIAMI – Property manager Nancy Leon knows all too well the effects of Florida’s dismal economy. People can’t pay their condominium association fees and fall behind on mortgages or rent. The condo property suffers. Then it has to cut costs, which makes the place less attractive for new residents. A vicious cycle.
“People are really struggling. We see it every day,” says Leon, a 42-year-old Republican who voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 as a symbol of hope and change but now isn’t sure the Democrat should get another term. Yet, she’s not sold on Republican front-runner Mitt Romney or his rivals. Like many other Florida residents, she can’t help but fret: “We are so knee-deep in the economic problems, so far down in the hole, who is going to get us out?”
With the Florida Republican presidential primary looming on Jan. 31 and Obama coming to the state Thursday to announce a new economic initiative, this is the grim situation in a key campaign battleground: Ten percent unemployment. Rampant home foreclosures. Nearly half the state’s homeowners owing more on their mortgages than their properties are worth.
Ten months before the election, Florida’s environment presents a stark challenge for Obama and an
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