It’s five days to the South Carolina primary. Here are the 10 things you need to know today.
- New PPP poll shows Romney way up in Florida: A new survey from Public Policy Polling shows Romney with a significant lead in Florida, the next primary state after South Carolina. Romney has a 15 point lead at 41%, Newt Gingrich follows with 26%, Rick Santorum has 11%, Ron Paul 10%, Rick Perry 4%, and Buddy Roemer at 1%. Interestingly, as Romney’s numbers go up, a CNN poll shows, enthusiasm among GOP voters goes down.
- Florida paper endorses Romney: The Tampa Bay Times endorsed Mitt Romney on Tuesday as “the candidate best prepared to make the Republicans’ case that change is needed in the White House.”
- Romney releases new ad using Huckabee quotes: Mitt Romney released a new ad using Mike Huckabee’s voice from his show defending Romney and Bain Capital-style capitalism. On his site, Huckabee put up a statement clarifying that the use of his words “in no way is an endorsement.”
- DNC releases video of Huntsman criticizing Romney: On Monday Jon Huntsman endorsed Mitt Romney when he bowed out of the race – even removing anti-Romney hits from his YouTube channel — but the DNC doesn’t want anyone to forget all the critical things Huntsman said about Romney during the campaign. They’ve put together a video montage of Huntsman’s attacks on Romney called “It’s All Still True.”
- Americans for Prosperity releases ad attacking Obama on Solyndra: The conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity has put $6 million into an ad buy attacking President Obama on Solyndra, accusing the president of using workers as “pawns” in a political game. The ad marks the first major ad buy against Obama in 2012.
- Perry goes after Romney on tax returns: In the Fox News debate on Monday night, Rick Perry pressured Mitt Romney into a quasi-commitment to release his tax returns this spring. His campaign also sent out an email, stating that Perry has released his returns every year he’s been in elected office.
- Santorum releases new ad calling on voters to support consistent conservative: Rick Santorum releases a new ad in South Carolina called “Easy Answer” on why voters should “unite around a consistent, proven conservative like Rick Santorum.” The ad attacks Romney as an Obama-style liberal.
- Concerned Women for America president endorses Santorum: Since being endorsed by a group of Christian conservatives over the weekend, Rick Santorum has received the endorsement of various figures on the religious-right. The endorsement from Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America is a personal endorsement.
- After Fox News debate, Democrats hit Romney on jobs claims: Mitt Romney made two jobs comments Democrats have an issue with. “We have a president in office three years,” Romney said, “and he does not have a jobs plan yet,” apparently forgetting about the American Jobs Act. Second, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released a statement noting that Romney has upped the number of jobs he claims to have created at Bain Capital from 100,000 to 120,000.
- Stephen Colbert’s super PAC releases second ad: ColbertSuperPAC released a second ad Monday, urging voters in South Carolina to vote for Herman Cain in the January 21 primary. Their first ad called Mitt Romney a serial killer for dismantling corporations which, in Romney’s own words, are people.
