Seeking to capitalize on his commanding
debate performance last week, Mitt Romney tried to turn the enthusiasm of large
crowds during a three-day visit to Florida into momentum to carry a state that,
by all accounts, is crucial to his path to the White House.
His effort to capture a state that
President Obama won in 2008 came on a day when the usual pattern of the race
was reversed: while Mr. Romney has been criticized by some Republicans for
spending too much time raising money off the trail, he was the one on the
multiple-day campaign swing this time, with Mr. Obama starting a fund-raising
jaunt through California.
“It may be a little cloudy today, but the sunshine is coming through,
guys,” Mr. Romney told more than 10,000 supporters in a light rain here on
Sunday.
All three of his rallies, beginning on
Friday in St. Petersburg, were in counties that Mr. Obama won in 2008. Those
contributed to his victory over Senator John McCain by three percentage points,
a landslide in Florida terms.
“We’re playing on their side of the 50-yard line,” said Rich Beeson,
Mr. Romney’s political director. “We’ve got to ratchet up Republican voters,
but we’ve also got to get people who voted for the president in 2008.”
Beyond scheduling frequent visits to the
state by Mr. Romney and his running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan,
Republicans have mounted an aggressive get-out-the-vote effort. Volunteers
knocked on over 150,000 doors in Florida on Saturday, nearly 60 times as many
as in 2008, Mr. Beeson said.
The effort was part of a national “Super
Saturday” turnout day that, according to the Republican National Committee,
benefited from enthusiasm for Mr. Romney’s debate performance. In the days
after the Wednesday debate, volunteer rosters jumped 60 percent nationally, the
committee said.
“Are you getting a lot of feedback on the debate?” Ann Romney, the
candidate’s wife, asked during a visit to a campaign office in Orlando on
Saturday. Volunteers erupted in shouts of “Yes!” Mrs. Romney placed a couple of
calls herself, telling one startled voter: “Dan, this is Ann Romney calling.
How about that? I know, it’s for real, too!”
As Mr. Romney campaigned here, Mr. Obama
started his fund-raising swing through California. He met donors at a small
gathering with President Bill Clinton at the home of Jeffrey Katzenberg, the
head of DreamWorks Animation, before holding much larger events, including one
at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles with the actor George Clooney.
With polls showing the race even tighter in
Florida than in other battleground states, Mr. Romney tailored his message for
maximum appeal, including by painting “Obamacare” as a threat to Florida
seniors who rely on Medicare. The health care overhaul would mean “$44 billion
of cuts right here in Florida” to Medicare, Mr. Romney said, offering an
interpretation that Democrats strongly reject. He added that about “540,000 of
our seniors that have Medicare Advantage would lose Medicare Advantage here in
Florida.”
Two of Mr. Romney’s three rallies were along
the Interstate 4 corridor that bisects the state and is home to some of its
most swing-prone counties.
Central Florida around Orlando has seen a
large influx of Hispanics, especially migrants from Puerto Rico, and Mr.
Romney’s campaign has tried to make inroads, running Spanish-language
television ads recorded by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Luis Fortuño, the
governor of Puerto Rico. On Friday night, Mr. Romney visited a Cuban restaurant
in Tampa.
But demographics alone give Mr. Obama an
edge. The state’s Hispanic electorate, which was 12 percent of registered
voters in 2008, is now 13.5 percent, and polls show that Hispanic voters favor
the president by the same overwhelming margin as four years ago. Meanwhile, the
share of white registered voters has declined to 67.5 percent from 69.
Mr. Obama’s campaign is also running a
fierce get-out-the-vote effort, with more than 100 field offices. Democrats
registered 10,000 new voters a week ago Saturday, the campaign said.
For Mr. Romney, the road to the 270
electoral votes needed to win the presidency is highly unlikely without
Florida’s 29. No Republican has won without Florida since Calvin Coolidge.
And that may explain why Mr. Romney chose
the state to add a new chapter to the attempt to project a more compassionate
side of his personality that was first introduced at the party convention in
Tampa five weeks ago.
In all three Florida appearances, he
offered personal stories that showed a tenderness toward people who had died.
In one he described a 14-year-old boy whose bedside he visited, and in another
he described a paralyzed former classmate who attended a rally of his on the
day before his death.
Suggesting that personal revelation still
comes unnaturally for Mr. Romney, in some renditions the accounts elicited a
gasp and an “ohh” from the crowd. At other times, there was no reaction.
But even though he may not have touched
hearts, the crowds cheered wildly when he told them, “I’m counting on Florida
to win this for me on Nov. 6.”
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