By Simon Mann
Newt Gingrich looked ready to cede a string of Republican Party primary contests this month to Mitt Romney, who is poised to triumph in today's winner-takes-all vote in Florida, but was determined to fight on.
Outgunned financially and facing the pro-Romney states of Nevada and Michigan, Gingrich campaign strategists were setting their sights on March and more friendly contests in the south where the former House Speaker can expect to benefit from bigger numbers of Tea Party and conservative Republicans.
Newt Gingrich … setting sights on Super Tuesday.Credit: Reuters
They drew comfort, too, from future contests in which delegates would be apportioned according to how many votes candidates won, unlike in Florida where the winner collects all 50.
''Regardless of the message the Romney campaign wants to push and the media wants to deliver, this race is just getting started,'' wrote Mr Gingrich's national political director in a memo to staff and donors.
The defiance promised a long campaign that already has been marred by spiteful personal exchanges between the top two contenders, which Republicans fear will make it difficult for the party to unite behind its eventual 2012 challenger to Democrat President Barack Obama.
Mr Romney, whose campaign and political allies have outspent the Gingrich camp by five-to-one in a terse and destructive TV and radio ad blitz, was well ahead of Mr Gingrich in opinion polls in the sunshine state, the most optimistic of which gave the former Massachusetts governor a 14 percentage point lead.
Buoyed by punchy performances in Florida's two televised debates, Mr Romney ridiculed his rival in campaign appearances on Monday, portraying Mr Gingrich as ''flailing about''. In response to crowd jeers at one event in Dunedin, Mr Romney added: ''I know, it's sad isn't it?'' He said Mr Gingrich's campaigning was ''painfully revealing''.
The Romney camp has targeted Mr Gingrich's links to the failed mortgage giant Freddie Mac, a sore point in Florida, which has been hit particularly hard by the property market collapse, as well as his ethics breaches while Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 1990s.
Mr Romney is expected to take renewed momentum into the weekend's Nevada caucuses, which he won four years ago with the help of Mormon voters. About a quarter of registered Republicans in the state are Mormon, with more than 90 per cent of those who voted for Mr Romney, who is also Mormon, in 2008.
This month's primaries include Arizona, which also has a large Mormon population, and Michigan, the state once governed by Mr Romney's late father, George Romney.
Mr Gingrich, whose campaign took off with a win in South Carolina 10 days ago, has battled to capitalise in Florida, a much bigger and more diverse state where Tea Party and evangelical numbers are more modest.
But the Gingrich camp remains confident of a rebound come Super Tuesday on March 6, when 10 states, including several southern constituencies, vote. Among them is Georgia, Mr Gingrich's home state, which accounts for 76 delegates to the party's national convention, and Tennessee (58 delegates).
Campaigning on Monday in Tampa, Mr Gingrich hit back at Mr Romney, accusing him of waging dishonest attacks. ''Frankly, if that stuff was true, [even] I wouldn't vote for me,'' he said.
Mr Gingrich said: ''I'll tell you what, there's nothing like 17-and-a-half million dollars of false ads to make a big difference. The reason that I seemed flat [during] the second debate in Florida is I've never seen a candidate for president that methodically dishonest … There was no simple way to call him out [on what were] a series of falsehoods. They were astonishing.''