Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary by a wide margin. Now the candidates head to Florida for the next primary battle. Here are ten things you need to know today.
- Sunday show line-ups: Newt Gingrich and Romney-surrogate Chris Christie will be on NBC’s Meet the Press. Mitt Romney is on Fox News Sunday. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich will appear on both CNN’s State of the Union and Rick Santorum will be on ABC’s This Week at 10am ET. Fareed Zakaria will interview David Rubenstein of The Carlyle Group on private equity for CNN’s GPS at 10am ET. Newt Gingrich will be on CBS’s Face the Nation.
- Romney heads into Florida with early voting advantage: In Florida, early voting and absentee voting will likely work in Romney’s favor. About 200,000 votes have already been counted, and over 470,000 absentee ballots have been requested. With Romney the assumed winner until last night, it’s likely these early voters have given Romney an early lead.
- Romney goes into Florida with lead in polls, money spent: Heading into Florida, the TPM Poll Average has Mitt Romney way ahead of the pack with 44% to Gingrich’s second place 22%. Romney has also been running ads in the state for weeks when no other candidate could afford to. So far, Gingrich and his supporting super PAC have spent nothing in Florida, while Romney and his supporting PAC have spent $7.3 million.
- Another Florida newspaper endorses Mitt Romney: The Pensacola News Journal endorsed Mitt Romney Sunday. The paper, coming from a region with a huge military base, praised Romney’s plan to grow the defense budget. Despite the endorsement, the paper criticized his plan to do nothing to help stem the foreclosure crisis — a big issue in Florida and one to watch for as the primary campaign heats up there.
- Paul skipping Florida: Ron Paul reminded voters in his speech in South Carolina last night that he will not be campaigning in Florida. Instead, his plan is to work in smaller, less expensive caucus states in the West and North.
- Gingrich campaign playing catch up in Florida, some campaign network in place: Sunday, the Gingrich campaign not only sent out a fundraising email, but also an email assuring the press that Newt is ready to hit the ground running in Florida with “14 paid staffers, seven offices, and a county chair in all 67 counties.
- Pro-Romney and Gingrich super PACs spent almost $5 million alone in SC: ProPublica has the numbers: Restore our Future spent $2.6 million opposing Newt Gingrich and just $100,000 supporting Romney. Winning our Future spent $2.9 million opposing Mitt Romney.
- Colbert super PAC spent almost $100k in South Carolina: Stephen Colbert’s super PAC (er, John Stewart’s super PAC?) spent $90,100 in South Carolina and scored over 6,000 votes or 1.1%.
- Romney and Santorum in Florida Sunday: Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are off to Florida this afternoon to campaign. Santorum will appear on Mike Huckabee’s Fox News show Sunday evening.
- The Bain attacks hurt Romney among lower income voters: Mitt Romney lost in South Carolina among everyone but those making over $200,000 per year. Among lower-income voters, ABC analysis says the Bain attacks hurt Romney.
