Giuliani’s Lead Shrinks in Florida, Poll Shows

By Michael Cooper

NAPLES, Fla. — The campaign’s signs say “Florida is Rudy Country.’’ But despite Rudolph W. Giuliani’s heavy advertising effort here, and the fact that he has the state almost to himself while his rivals duke it out in colder climes, a poll released Monday shows that his lead in Florida has slipped, and the state is now very much up for grabs.

The poll, by Quinnipiac University, showed Senator John McCain, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee all within the margin of sampling error. And it found that even though Mr. Giuliani now has the airwaves here to himself, Mr. McCain has gained nine percentage points since the last Qunnipiac survey was taken, between Dec. 12 and Dec. 18, while Mr. Giuliani lost eight percentage points.

The poll, which has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, showed Mr. McCain with the support of 22 percent of likely primary voters, Mr. Giuliani at 20 percent, and Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Romney with 19. The survey polled 419 likely Republican primary voters from Jan. 9 through Jan. 13.

“These numbers can’t be good news for Mayor Giuliani who has staked his entire campaign on winning Florida and whose lead has evaporated,’’ Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement. “Giuliani is showing the negative effects of poor finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, while McCain’s jump is not unexpected given his New Hampshire victory.”

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Giulianis Lead Shrinks in Florida, Poll Shows - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog

And many of us saw this problem weeks ago,so much for Rudy's "national" strategy...

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"Destiny must be shaped and not left to mere chance."..Spencer Collins ..

Looks like his "hang back until the big states" theory isn't gonna help...

Even if it wasn't aggressive campaigning, what RG should've done was, at the least, show up on the beginning...

Every candidate got a "The nominee was at blah, blah, blah today speaking..." followed by some quote or reaction...With RG there was none of that, which made people nationally forget about him...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

I don't think that Rudy had a chance to begin with. He didn't have enough to back him and his closet of skeletons was way too open.... He is basing his campaign on 9-11 way too much too...

he had a chance...

he was leading nationally early on...he just did nothing with that...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

He failed to capitalize on the momentum he had and he was advised not to spend much time in states they thought he could not win.A candidate should campaighn in every state as if the election depended on that state alone! Rudy has sufficient funding for a 50 state strategy,he "was" the main contender.What good is it to save a few million if you lose the momentum in the process? The Rudy camp took a risk and they will pay dearly for it...

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"Destiny must be shaped and not left to mere chance."..Spencer Collins ..