Free Republic

Dear Chairman Preibus, I am writing an open letter to you in hopes that you will do the right thing and make the Florida Republican Party abide by the rules of the Republican National Committee. The state of Florida deliberately snubbed its' nose at the party and the rules several months ago when it voted to hold the Florida primary early, which has already cost if 49 delegates out of the original 99 delegates allocated by the RNC. Now they further give the party the middle finger by allocating the remaining delegates as "winner-take-all", instead of the proportional allotment that...

The Florida primary may have delivered a decisive victory for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, but the exit polls also revealed a bright spot for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — the tea party. Gingrich racked up a decisive victory of his own among voters who said they “strongly support” the tea party movement, according to exit poll data compiled by Fox News. Overall, 45 percent of those voters chose Gingrich over Romney, who finished with just 33 percent of support from strong supporters of the tea party movement. The tea party is also thought to have played a key...

Romney is being portrayed as having locked up the Republican nomination with his Florida victory, but he’s a long way from the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch, and voters in other states deserve to be heard. Yes, Mitt Romney had a big win in Florida last night. He’s won two of the first four primary states, totaling 84 delegates to date. But he needs 1,144 to clinch the Republican nomination—he’s just 7 percent of the way there. So call off the coronation—give people in the other 46 states a chance to vote. “We’re in the first quarter,” says John Brabender,...

Appearing on Fox News tonight, former half term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin slammed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney by claiming that he won the Florida with money and misleading ads (video below). Palin lamented: “I think that with $17 million purchasing some ads and some false narrative it was very, very difficult for Newt Gingrich and the other candidates to counter that bombardment of advertisements" “$17 million spent in one state, that purchased a lot of darts and arrows that were flown in one direction and then a lot of darts and arrows were flown back and you know a...

An exuberant Ann Romney said on the evening of her husband’s Florida primary win Tuesday that she was amused by attacks on the former Massachusetts governor that characterized him as a “moderate” or a “liberal.” “It’s been funny to me. What’s next, a communist? I don’t know, it’s been humorous,” she said with a laugh during an interview with CNN moments before the network called the state for Mitt Romney. “We are looking forward to a win tonight.” Ann Romney said that she knew where Mitt’s true beliefs lay. “I know where his values are on a personal level. He...

Ok...I've been wrong before and I will be again....But here's my predictions for tonights' Florida Primary: Newt will fare much better than expected. Santorum will do a little better than expected as well. Romney may win this, but it will be a much closer race than most people think. Almost every poll in South Carolina put Romney almost exactly where he ended up and the same was true in New Hampshire. To me, this denotes that undecideds are going heavily toward Gingrich, or other candidates as was the case in New Hampshire. In South Carolina, most of the polls showed...

(Titusville FL) — Tea Party in Space (TPIS) is excited to endorse Newt Gingrich for President of the United States. Mr. Gingrich is the only candidate who consistently articulates a bright vision for future American space exploration and settlement. Mr. Gingrich’s unique approach of utilizing the government and private sector is exactly what NASA needs. “Newt Gingrich is the only credible candidate in this primary race in Florida who has any credibility when it comes to America’s future in space,” said Andrew Gasser, President and National Coordinator for TPIS. “Newt will not have to take a poll or rely on...

When all polls close by 8 p.m. Eastern tonight in Florida, the winner of the state’s Republican primary may not initially be apparent. After all, the winner takes all, which means the candidate who gets the most votes gets all of the delegates. But the state, with 10 different media markets and a cultural mélange that ranges from Alabama South to Cuba North, is by no means homogeneous. Here are five crucial indicators to keep track of as the returns come in: Absentee VotersThe first key factor is, about a third of Florida voters have already cast their ballots, and...

Raleigh, N.C. – PPP's second day of tracking in Florida finds little change in the state of the race. Mitt Romney leads with 39% to 32% for Newt Gingrich with Rick Santorum at 14% and Ron Paul at 11%. Romney and Santorum are both down a single point from Saturday's polling while Paul has gained 2 points and Gingrich has stayed in place. The reason we don't find Gingrich getting blown out by a double digit margin in Florida is that he's winning a lot of the same groups he did in South Carolina. He's up 37-33 with Evangelicals, 40-33...

Once again, all eyes are on Florida. As a Florida Republican, this has become routine to me. For the last month, the state with the third-greatest number of electoral votes has been the subject of intense campaigning on the part of not only GOP presidential hopefuls but also the president, who has visited Florida more times in January than he did in all of 2011. Especially in the primaries, where Florida’s winner-take-all structure would award the winner 50 delegates, Florida is a crucial state for presidential candidates. At a structural level, it also reflects the country most closely. South Carolina,...

FORT MYERS, FL--Thousands of Floridians will hear the voice of Todd Palin in their homes tomorrow as they head out to the polls on primary day. The former GOP vice presidential candidate's husband is recording a get-out-the-vote robo-call in support of Newt Gingrich that will go out across the state, campaign spokesman RC Hammond told NBC News. Gingrich also revealed that Todd Palin will campaign on his behalf on the trail, though he did not specific exactly how. "I'm also delighted Todd Palin has agreed to do calls for us and campaign for us," Gingrich told a crowd at Page...

In Telemundo's 'Enfoque': "me ayudaba mucho." --- IMHO. It is very important for the Hispanic Americans to hear from him a good word for Newt. Especially after the fall out of Marco asking Newt to pull off the ad about immigration.

Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) sharply criticized the Republican Party “establishment” for using what she called a “Stalin-esque rewriting of history” to tar Newt Gingrich as he fights for the GOP presidential nomination. Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, posted a nearly 1,400-word statement on her Facebook page on Friday in which she accused Republican party elders of employing “tactics of the left” to derail the Gingrich campaign. “The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the...

Did anyone else see Scott on FNC a few hours ago with anchor Greg(?) saying that the nine point lead is tightening as the weekend progresses...IN NEWT'S FAVOR!!! Both of them seemed puzzled by it. :-)

Newt Gingrich is the only one of the four remaining GOP presidential candidates who has the proven track record to take on the nation’s most pressing problems, Rep. David Rivera of Florida says. Rivera made his endorsement comments during the former House speaker’s Latin American foreign policy speech at Florida International University in Miami. Speaking to the audience in both English and Spanish, Rivera described Gingrich as “the only Republican candidate that has experience getting things done, balancing budgets, dealing with the national debt. And imagine this: He did it in a bipartisan fashion, going up against a Democrat in...

The New York Times reports today — based on unclear sourcing — that Mitt Romney has endorsed a strategy of raising doubts about Newt Gingrich’s “emotional stability.” Well, if that’s the case, here’s Exhibit A. A Florida source passes along a mailer that the Romney campaign — not the pro-Romney Super PAC; his campaign — just dropped in the state, and it comes as close as possible to making that case, hitting Gingrich as “erratic” and “reckless.” The mailer also prominently features a quote from my colleague Jennifer Rubin, describing Gingrich’s “well of sleaze.” Here’s page one: (GRAPHIC AT LINK)...

DORAL – At the Hispanic Leadership Conference in Doral, a group watched closely as the Republican candidates battled it on stage at the debate in Jacksonville. While the group doesn’t seem to endorse any one candidate, the cheering was considerably louder when Newt Gingrich walked onto the stage. Before the debate, Former Florida governor Jeb Bush spoke to the crowd, and we asked him why he wasn’t willing to endorse a candidate. (VIDEO AT LINK) “I think first of all, candidates need to earn it. Not that my endorsement would be the end-all-be-all, but I think it’s appropriate for them...

MOUNT DORA, Fla. -- Newt Gingrich trained his full arsenal of weaponry on Mitt Romney at a rally here Thursday morning, charging that his opponent wouldn't stand up to President Obama in a general election and questioning his commitment to the GOP. It was the harshest critique Gingrich has leveled to date and may be a reflection of his slackened showing in the polls. It also underscored Gingrich's strategy of capitalizing on the free media and momentum he tends to capture in debates; tonight CNN is hosting the final debate before Florida voters render their judgment on Tuesday, and the...

After being pummeled by Newt Gingrich in a series of debates, Mitt Romney employed a new strategy last night at the debate in Tampa, Florida. He was more aggressive and attacked Gingrich on everything from his tenure as Speaker of the House to his contract with Freddie Mac. In contrast, Gingrich was more subdued and spent the evening responding to the Romney assault. Since his last debate, Romney hired Brett O'Donnell as his debate coach. O'Donnell previously worked with the Michele Bachmann campaign. According to Gingrich, O'Donnell's "speciality is to say as many untruths as fast as you can." Although...

With little hope of performing well in Florida next week, Rick Santorum may be cutting his losses. The Republican primary, as predicted, has become solidly a two-man contest between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. Santorum is struggling to compete in a state that is much larger, much more expensive and has a more diverse electorate than the previous three contests. The former Pennsylvania senator told reporters in Florida that he was leaving the state after Thursday night's debate for a fundraiser in Pennsylvania and to prepare his tax records to make public at home in Virginia, according to an NBC...

Different crowds, different tones at events for the 2 top GOP candidates. The two leading Republican presidential candidates came to Central Florida on Wednesday, and their events — and reception by voters — couldn't have been more different. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney showed up at factory in Orlando on Wednesday morning, telling a politely enthusiastic crowd of about 400 that President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night showed that the president is out of touch with America. "We have a president who is detached from reality. He's detached from the people. He's detached from his own...

Newt was running late to our rally today in Coral Springs by about an hour and half. But instead of causing folks to leave, it provided an opportunity for many more to show up. Hardly anyone from the establishment GOP of the county came to the rally. But Tea Party activists of note were all over the place with one of them, Chad Lincoln, acting as emcee and giving updates until Newt arrived. Of course we were not without drama. Many Ron Paul nuts were out and about. I have never witnessed so many of them showing up in one...

SARASOTA, Fla. — Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich assailed his chief rival for the party’s nomination on Tuesday by using a local insult, calling Mitt Romney the “Charlie Crist” of the GOP field. His reference to the former Florida governor, who lost his Senate race in 2010, embodies Gingrich’s strategy as he tries to ride a wave of momentum heading into the primary here next week: to channel the energy and power of the tea party movement that sank Crist and elected outsider superstar Marco Rubio. Gingrich has attached himself to the tea party movement ever more tightly in recent...

BRADENTON – Coming off a big win in South Carolina and polling out front here in the Sunshine State, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich seems to have the momentum heading into Florida's presidential primary on January 31. After winning South Carolina by a wide margin, a recent Rasmussen poll has him nearly 10 points ahead of Romney at 41 and 31 percent respectively. Romney's slide has also now extended into the national polls, where he is also plunging, having dropped 10 points to fall behind the former House Speaker. As the two prospective candidates continue to wage a bloody battle,...

Reporting from Sarasota, Fla. - In advance of President Obama’s State of the Union speech tonight, Newt Gingrich hammered at the president’s track record, arguing on Tuesday that he has implemented a radical agenda that has strangled the nation’s economy and increased its vulnerability around the world. “Tonight, the president will explain it was all George W. Bush’s fault,” Gingrich told more than 2,000 supporters gathered in an airport hangar. “This is the fourth year of his presidency, he needs to get over it.” Gingrich repeatedly sought to paint the president as out-of-touch with traditional American values. “You always have...

Popular former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is predicting that the makeup of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s inner circle of advisers, which includes several strategists who ran former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s ill-fated Senate campaign against conservative standard-bearer Marco Rubio, will hurt Romney’s image with Florida voters. In an exclusive Newsmax interview Monday evening, McCollum said Sunshine State voters “will not be favorably inclined to that, because most Republican primary voters in Florida know that Charlie Crist flopped on them. He went over to the Democrats’ side … it just wasn’t the same Charlie Crist they thought they’d elected.”...

As the primary cycle wends its way into Florida, it’s advisable for Jews to maintain a lively sense of humor as well as a strong sense of irony. Tucked behind the 10-foot privacy shrubs that line the billionaire byways of Palm Beach, trust fund philanthropists are scratching their heads and wondering what all the fuss is about, simply because Mitt Romney referred to a third of a million as “not very much.” How Florida Jews cast their ballots January 31 is actually serious business. After all, the Florida GOP primary will be the first opportunity to get a glimpse of...

From Public Policy Polling, whose poll shows a slightly smaller lead (5 percentage points) for Newt Gingrich than two others today that had him up by 8 and 9 percentage points, respectively: PPP's first post-South Carolina poll in Florida finds Newt Gingrich with a small lead. He's at 38% to 33% for Mitt Romney, 13% for Rick Santorum, and 10% for Ron Paul. Gingrich has gained 12 points since a PPP poll conducted in Florida a week ago. Romney has dropped 8 points. Paul and Santorum have pretty much remained in place. Their favorability numbers show similar trendlines. Gingrich's has...

Prior to the South Carolina primary, former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, in an appearance on Sean Hannity’s television show, urged South Carolinians to vote for Newt Gingrich. Palin said that she wanted the vetting process to continue, as the current occupant of the Oval Office had not been thoroughly vetted before the election in 2008. Did Palin’s ‘endorsement’ help put Gingrich over the top? No doubt, outstanding debate performances coupled with Gingrich’s blistering of the media and Mitt Romney’s collapse due to missteps regarding the release of his taxes influenced the results to a great degree. But...

Two new Florida primary polls, the first since Newt Gingrich's deeply, profoundly impressive victory in South Carolina on Saturday, have now been released, and it appears that the bounce everyone thought he would receive has materialized as expected. An Insider Advantage poll has Gingrich leading Mitt Romney 34 percent to 26 percent, while a Rasmussen poll has Gingrich up 41 percent to 32 percent. Meanwhile, PPP has also tweeted out much tighter (preliminary) numbers from its polling efforts in the Sunshine and Meth and Old People State: Gingrich and Romney are separated by just two voters after polling 600 people....

Presumably, polling data that is more comprehensive and authoritative will be released in the next few days, but the initial indicators point to a Florida primary race that has been utterly transformed by Newt Gingrich’s resurgence. Just a week ago, when he was coming off victories in Iowa* and New Hampshire and seemed on his way to a convincing South Carolina win, three different polls in the Sunshine State gave Mitt Rommey an average lead of 22 points, with Newt Gingrich running a very distant second in one of them and third (behind Rick Santorum) in the other. But now...

Newt Gingrich has now surged to a significant lead over Mitt Romney in Florida, leading the former front-runner now by 8 points, according to a new poll by InsiderAdvantage completed Sunday night of likely Republican primary voters. The InsiderAdvantage poll of of 557 registered Republican voters is one of the first polls taken in Florida in the aftermath of Gingrich's double-digit win in the South Carolina primary Saturday. The poll results follow: Gingrich: 34% Romney: 26% Paul: 13% Santorum: 11% Other: 2% No opinion: 14% The InsiderAdvantage poll was the first major poll last week to show the significant surge...

While Gingrich's come-from-behind victory in Saturday's South Carolina primary has put a halt to discussions of Mitt Romney as the inevitable GOP nominee, the former Massachusetts governor remains the heavy favorite for the next primary contest in Florida and the Republican nomination. For the former House speaker to fully claw his way back into contention, he'll have to put together a remarkable week in the lead-up to the Jan. 31 Sunshine state primary. Luckily for Gingrich, he already has a template: his successful effort in South Carolina. The former Speaker's upset win in the Palmetto state — he was trailing...

Courtesy of one friend, an old pro, three perhaps overlooked points in the sea of analysis of South Carolina and beyond: “I notice that everyone’s citing all kinds of reasons for S.C.: Romney overconfident, Perry's endorsement, Romney doesn't connect, Barnes’s argument that Romney needs a ‘big idea.’ Lost in all this it seems is one name: Sarah Palin. First time she has expressed herself in the race and her candidate wins by 12. If she really comes out for Newt, look out. “Second thought: Paul has potential to give Romney lots of trouble in caucus states. “Final point: Some argue...

Newt Gingrich on CBS’ “Face the Nation” this morning turned analyst about why top opponent Mitt Romney stumbled in South Carolina. Authenticity is the issue, Gingrich told Bob Schieffer. Gingrich described former Massachusetts Gov. Romney as “a very good salesman, very much wants to sell, but he has a really weak product. And so I think he’s been dancing on eggs trying to find a version of Romney that will work. And I think the more he dances the more people go — you know, give me the real … I have flaws, I have weaknesses, I’ve had a long...

Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary, 40 percent to 28 percent, over Mitt Romney. He also won every Congressional district and, in doing so, won all of South Carolina’s 25 delegates. Now the battle heads to Florida, which holds its primary on Jan. 31. Here are five things to look for as the race heads to Florida. 1. Momentum versus organization Newt Gingrich will come into Florida with momentum, gained from winning South Carolina’s primary, which every Republican presidential nominee has won since 1980. But Romney has a head start in Florida. He has hundreds of thousands of absentee...

Newt Gingrich now has that intangible that unfortunately our Republicans have been missing, except for Sarah Palin. It is called swagger. I am talking about the Contract with America creating, welfare reforming, budget balancing, race card killing, CNN bashing, Obama debate challenging swagger. More than confidence, it's pure belief and trust in his own ability to carry out the conservative cause while winning hearts and minds. Public arena winning, back room brawling, media manhandling, Newt is a seasoned, battle tested statesman who has finally found his rhythm. It is very contagious to witness a confident conservative who can articulate our...

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich​’s outstanding debate performance on Monday and key endorsements could set the stage for a strong showing by Gingrich in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, which would position him for a possible win in the Florida primary on Jan. 31 and a chance at the Republican nomination for President this summer. That’s what the two former Republican U.S. Representatives who are chairing Gingrich’s campaign in those two key states told HUMAN EVENTS yesterday. Following what even Gingrich’s enemies say was a virtuoso performance in the debate at Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Monday evening, former Reps. John Napier (S.C.) and...

Newt Gingrich got the endorsement of Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, which is not nearly as valuable. If you’re a Republican who wants to be President, you’d rather have a Bush bless your candidacy than a Palin. Which is why Mitt Romney’s strategists and party pros shrug off Newt Gingrich’s endorsement by Sarah Palin’s husband Todd — and look at their shoes when asked whether former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will endorse Romney. “That would be nice,” a prominent Romney counselor squirmed when asked the question directly. But Jeb’s endorsement of a fellow retired governor is a question of when, not...

Big government conservatives will never truly overhaul Washington because they need the status quo in place to accomplish their objectives. They don’t want to rebuild the machine; they simply want to change the people pulling the levers. But that is not what the American people want. There is such deep and widespread discontent that nothing short of a complete overhaul will satisfy their justifiable demands. The American people expect changes equal to their concern, which is the highest it’s been in at least a generation, and I am the only candidate with a vision that is as strong and sweeping...

FOX's Neil Cavuto interviews Club for Growth's Andy Roth who rates the GOP presidential candidates economic plans.

Surprising. The odds of this happening, given the Bush family’s antipathy to Gingrich and Perry, couldn’t have been much higher than 98 or 99 percent. Second look at political dynasties backing establishment candidates? Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush plans to endorse former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney before the Jan. 31 Florida primary, a Florida GOP source close to Bush told BuzzFeed Thursday. The endorsement from Bush, who despite prodding from members of his famous family and prominent Republicans decided to sit out the 2012 contest, is the latest sign that the Republican establishment is coalescing around Romney after months publicly...

A poll from Quinnipiac University released on Thursday found that President Barack Obama is upside down in Florida, which remains one of the crucial contests of the 2012 general election. The poll of Florida voters was part of Quinnipiac’s look at swing states, which also included Ohio and Pennsylvania. "Of these three swing states President Obama carried in 2008, Florida was the biggest surprise and had the closest margin," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Florida is shaping up to be the closest swing state again in 2012, and it's a fair bet that a...

Republican superstar speaker Sarah Palin will be the headliner at the Republican Party of Florida’s Nov. 3 “victory dinner” fundraiser at the Disney Grand Floridian Resort in Orlando. Palin, the former Alaska governor who ran for vice president in 2008, has been best known this year for not running for president and yet still drawing at least as much attention as the nine announced candidates. “This gala dinner comes just a year before one of the most important elections in Florida and the nation’s history,” RPOF Chairman Lenny Curry stated in a press release issued by the party. “Having a...

If you are on facebook can you go to the Club and like. The DemoRats in the area have more facebook friends than us Republicans.

Voters in Florida give President Obama a 57 percent disapproval rating in a new Quinnipiac University poll, the worst Q-poll result for the president in any of the states where it does surveys. Obama would lose to Republican Mitt Romney 47-40 percent and is statistically tied with Rick Perry, the poll found. The one small consolation for Democrats — while Romney could beat Obama in Florida today, and Perry is even with him, it’s Perry who leads the GOP field, with 28 percent to Romney’s 22 percent. Perry leads Romney comfortably at 31-22 percent if Sarah Palin stays out, the...

Will the early primary voting hurt the conservatives in the race?

Republicans in Florida today officially pushed their presidential primary up to January 31st of 2012, and other early-voting states, including New Hampshire, warn that they'll just move their own contests up. New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports. To New Hampshire Republican Party Committeeman Steve Duprey, the calendar fight isn't about whether voters will cast ballots during the holiday season. Iowa held its caucus on January 3rd back in 2008. Duprey says his problem with Florida is that front-loading the primary impacts the entire GOP race. "The net effect of Florida jumping means that it's really too late for any...

Herman Cain's win in the Florida straw poll could very well be a harbinger of building momentum, according to a new poll of Republicans in the state released Thursday by SurveyUSA. Pundits had initially questioned whether Cain's victory in the straw poll — in which he earned more than twice the votes of any other candidate — was a protest vote by Republicans disenchanted with the debate performance of presumptive front-runner Rick Perry. But Cain ranked second Thursday in the statewide poll of Republican voters, with 25 percent support — he trails Florida front-runner Mitt Romney by just 2 points....

The U.S, Senate race between George LeMieux and Adam Hasner continues to heat up, with LeMieux issuing a snarky release blasting Hasner for calling attention to LeMieux’s French heritage. Specifically, Hasner is distributing a bumper sticker that says “LeMieux: It’s French for Crist.� It’s part of Hasner’s effort to hang Crist, the moderate former governor who lost to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio last year, on LeMiuex, who at various times was the governor’s chief of staff, the “architect� of his campaign and Crist’s appointee to the U.S. Senate.Today, LeMieux issued a release calling attention — “In Case You missed It�...