TAMPA, Fla. – Florida Republicans were putting an end to a raucous, big-spending, character-bashing primary campaign Tuesday as they decided whether a confident Mitt Romney or a defiant Newt Gingrich would win the state’s 50 delegates, the biggest prize of the GOP race so far.
Romney is heavily favored in the winner-take-all primary, the final and possibly pivotal contest in a high-stakes month in which the former Massachusetts governor has claimed one win and two second-place finishes so far. On Monday, he campaigned so optimistically that he broke into song.
Two other candidates — Rick Santorum and Ron Paul — have ceded Florida in favor of smaller, less expensive contests.
Gingrich dismissed suggestions that he could be hobbled by a significant loss in Florida, telling reporters outside an Orlando polling place that the race wouldn’t be decided until June or July — “unless Romney drops out earlier.”
Several voters seemed eager for an end to the continuous volley of charges and countercharges that colored the campaign.
Dorothy Anderson, voting for Gingrich at a retirement community in Pinellas Park, Fla., said “The dirty ads really turned me off on Mitt Romney.”
“In fact if he gets the nomination, I probably won’t vote for him,” Anderson added.
At the
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
