POLK CITY, Fla. – The Republican campaign for the White House yesterday moved to Florida, where Rudy Giuliani squared off with front-runner John McCain in what’s become a political slugfest.
Giuliani, who needs a victory in Florida on Jan. 29 to keep his campaign hopes alive, blasted McCain, fresh off a primary victory in South Carolina, for abandoning his own party and voting in the Senate against President Bush’s tax cuts.
“The case for me is I am the strongest fiscal conservative in the race. I have a record of supporting tax cuts,” Giuliani said during the first leg of a two-day bus tour of the Sunshine State.
By comparison, Giuliani said, McCain joined the Democrats in opposing President Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.
“John voted against the Bush tax cuts . . . on both occasions. He sided with the Democrats,” Giuliani said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Giuliani later repeated the attack in front of several hundred enthusiastic supporters in Spartan Manor in western Florida – though he didn’t mention McCain by name. He was joined by actor Jon Voight and former FBI Director Louis Freeh.
But McCain counterattacked, pointing out that while serving as mayor Giuliani endorsed liberal Democrat Mario Cuomo over Republican George Pataki in 1994.
McCain said he opposed the Bush tax cuts because they were not accompanied by cuts in spending. He now supports extending those tax cuts.
Florida is a must-win state for Giuliani, who has done poorly in all the early voting states and whose national poll numbers have plummeted. He has marshaled his resources and spent more time in the Sunshine State than his rivals the past few weeks.
Giuliani bluntly said that the winner of the Florida primary will be the GOP presidential nominee.
“We’re going to surprise all the pundits and experts. People in Florida have their own mind,” Giuliani said.
For his part, McCain has already won the endorsements of a half-dozen Florida newspapers, including the Orlando Sentinel, the largest in central Florida. And he tied or surpassed Giuliani in polls taken before his SC victory.
McCain, a former Vietnam POW, has won the lion’s share of national-security voters in the early contests, votes that Giuliani – heralded for his handling of 9/11 – has counted on.