Romney confident as Floridians head to the polls
TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney insisted Tuesday that his crushing South Carolina loss came after rival Newt Gingrich spent more to run negative ads, and said that sharper attacks against the former speaker have propelled him ahead in Florida.
Romney said he was “outgunned” in South Carolina and claimed his campaign was “vastly outspent with negative ads.” But the numbers don’t support Romney’s assertion. He and his backers actually spent $4.6 million in South Carolina, while Gingrich and his allies spent less than half that amount, or about $2.2 million.
“I needed to make sure that instead of being outgunned in terms of attacks, that I responded aggressively, and hopefully that will have served me well here,” Romney said outside his campaign headquarters after reporters asked what lessons he took away from the South Carolina defeat.
Romney also insisted he’s more conservative than Gingrich.
“I would love to understand how it is that Speaker Gingrich characterizes himself as more conservative than me,” Romney said. He cited his record as governor of Massachusetts, including balancing the state budget.
In a jab at Gingrich, Romney said he accomplished that by cutting spending instead of “by growing government fast and hoping that the Internet bubble would provide funds.” The former speaker often claims some credit for balanced federal budgets in the 1990s.
Romney also criticized President Barack Obama, who on Monday expressed surprised that an engineer had trouble finding work despite being highly skilled.
Romney said the encounter “underscores the fact that the president is out of touch with what’s happening in America.”
The former Massachusetts governor said he’d like to spend more time focused on Obama but acknowledged that strategy helped contribute to his in South Carolina. He said he planned to keep attacking the former House speaker as the primary fight moves on to Nevada, Minnesota and other early voting states.
Romney was ahead in statewide polls in Florida and was expected to do well against Gingrich in Tuesday’s voting. He scheduled campaign events Wednesday in Minnesota and Las Vegas.
Romney and his allies have spent millions pummeling Gingrich with negative ads on Florida’s airwaves. Gingrich has called it a “carpet-bombing” that left him unable to respond in kind.
Romney also has attacked Gingrich in speeches around the state.
On Monday, he labeled Gingrich an untrustworthy Washington influence-peddler. His constant linking of Gingrich with the federally backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac has hurt the former speaker in a state wracked by the foreclosure crisis.
After he left Congress in 1999, Gingrich’s consulting firm received more than $1.5 million from Freddie Mac, which Romney calls “the very institution that helped stand behind the huge housing crisis here in Florida.”