SUNSHINY DAY: Presidential candidateMitt Romney works the crowd during a rally in Naples, Fla., yesterday, two days before the state’s primary. (
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A surging Mitt Romney took a commanding double-digit lead over Newt Gingrich yesterday, just hours before primary polling opens in Florida — then mocked him for a “failure to connect” with voters.
Romney raked in 42 percent in the crucial state against Gingrich’s 27 percent, according to an NBC/Marist survey unveiled yesterday. The primary will be held tomorrow.
Former Pennsylvania US Sen. Rick Santorum came in a distant third place with 16 percent, followed by Texas Congressman Ron Paul at 11 percent.
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The results also revealed that Romney has the best chance of defeating President Obama in a general-election head-to-head matchup.
Obama leads Romney, 49 percent to 41 percent, and is ahead of Gingrich by 17 percentage points, the poll said.
A separate poll conducted by the Miami Herald showed Gingrich trailing the former Massachusetts governor by 11 points in what many view is the most critical swing state in the nation — where 50 of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination reside.
The newspaper poll also showed Romney attracting 52 percent of the Hispanic vote to Gingrich’s 28 percent.
That demographic makes up 14 percent of GOP voters in Florida, and three out of every four Republican voters in the state’s most populous county, Miami-Dade, are Hispanic.
Romney and Gingrich spent Sunday campaigning tirelessly across the state — and increased the brutal attacks on each other.
Outside the Casa Marin restaurant in Hialeah, a city just outside Miami, Romney ripped the former House speaker for complaining during a debate about rules that kept audience members from applauding.
“I’m afraid the real reason he hasn’t been successful connecting with the people of Florida is his message,” Romney zinged, earning cheers from the crowd.
“You want someone who is not part of Washington,” Romney added. “You want someone who will change Washington. I will do so when I’m president.”
And at a press conference, Gingrich hit Romney as a “pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase liberal.”
Aida Rivas, 77, a homemaker who emigrated from Cuba in 1965, said she’s voting for Romney because “he can beat Obama.”
Her opinion on Gingrich, spoken in Spanish, didn’t require much translation.
“No me gusta. Mucho ‘blah, blah, blah,’ ” she said.
Gingrich did concede yesterday that Romney had successfully cut into the momentum that Gingrich had coming out of a big win in South Carolina.
But he also accused Romney of “carpet bombing” Florida with negative ads.
“He doesn’t try to build Mitt Romney up; he just tries to tear down whoever he’s running against, and it has an effect,” Gingrich said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Romney and the political committee that supports him combined to spend some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in Florida. Gingrich and a super PAC that supports him were spending about one-third that amount.
Romney volleyed back with his own attack.
“Your problem in Florida is that you worked for Freddie Mac at a time when Freddie Mac was not doing the right thing for the American people,” Romney said.
And Gingrich oversaw the House at a time when the capital-gains tax dropped, unemployment fell 4.2 percent and the government’s budgets were balanced, Romney claimed.
Gingrich ripped Romney’s claims on Fox, saying, “Frankly, the reason I was relatively flat on Thursday’s debate is I don’t know how you debate a person . . . being civil when he stands there and blatantly doesn’t tell the truth.”