Jan 16, 2008 7:11 pm US/Eastern
Florida Shaping Up As Giuliani's Last Stand
Former NYC Mayor Left Little Choice But To Win Jan. 29
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks during the CNN/YouTube Republican presidential candidate debate Nov. 28. in St. Petersburg, Fla. The former NYC mayor's run at his party's nomination has hit nothing but roadblocks so far.
Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
It's on to Nevada and South Carolina, the next showdown states in what's developed into an unusually wide-open race for president.
Among Republicans, four states have so far picked three different winners. Mitt Romney, John McCain and Mike Huckabee have all won.
But what does this mean for Rudy Giuliani? In one way, it's all going according to his master plan.
Romney's Michigan win Tuesday night scrambled the Republican primary once again, leaving an opening for the former New York City mayor.
"There've been three different states, three different winners," Giuliani aide Mike McKeon said. "It's a wide open race and its setting up very nicely for our Florida strategy."
That Florida strategy is the most talked-about, often-ridiculed game plan of the campaign season. Giuliani will have skipped five contests before staking his claim in the Sunshine State on Jan. 29.
"I think it was just a bumbling, amateurish tactic and it didn't serve him very well," political consultant Norman Adler said.
In a lower Manhattan office space, volunteers for Giuliani are manning phone banks. But their calls are to Florida, not to New York. No one here disputes that this campaign will live or die based on the results of the Florida race.
"Are you asking me is this an important win?" Giuliani said. "It's an important win."
The campaign is running so low on cash, staffers are working without pay. His old constituents are debating whether he still has a chance.
"I think he's just trying to concentrate on a region where he has the best shot at it," voter Al Keshvarzian said. "I think he has a good chance."
But that sentiment is clearly not shared by everyone.
"I think he sat back on the back burner too long and hoped his reputation from New York would carry him and it's not going to," one voter told CBS 2 HD.
But this is a strategy borne of necessity. Giuliani had hoped at one point to do a lot better in places like New Hampshire and Iowa, but voters didn't take to him there, and now he's retreated to Florida as his last stand.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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