By Lisa Lerer and Julie Hirschfeld Davis - Jan 21, 2012 12:00 PM GMT+0700
Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Alex Brill, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Peter Ferrara, chief economic policy adviser to Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, talk about the tax plans of Gingrich and rival Mitt Romney. They speak with Trish Regan on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." (Source: Bloomberg)
Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Mitt Romney saw his rationale as the Republican presidential front-runner undercut as Newt Gingrich’s rise was threatened by allegations from an ex-wife and Rick Santorum fought them both in last night's debate that showcased tensions in the most turbulent day yet of the primary race. Peter Cook reports on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
Striving to regain ground in the final hours before the South Carolina primary, Mitt Romney offered a dim assessment of his chances in the race as he sparred with a surging Newt Gingrich.
Traveling the state in the final full day of campaigning before today’s voting, the former Massachusetts governor sought to downplay expectations, describing the race as a “neck-and- neck” competition.
“I said from the very beginning South Carolina is an uphill battle for a guy from Massachusetts,” he told reporters yesterday in Gilbert, South Carolina. “We’re battling hard.”
Gingrich, seeking to ride what polls show is a late wave of support, planned a full day of campaign stops in a bid to top Romney.
“The only effective conservative vote to stop a Massachusetts moderate is to vote for me,” Gingrich told an overflow crowd of more than 500 voters yesterday at The Cinema Room in Orangeburg. “If I win tomorrow, I will go on to become the nominee.”
A poll released yesterday, conducted by Clemson University, put Gingrich ahead of Romney, 32 percent to 26 percent. Trailing are U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas at 11 percent and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum at 9 percent, with 20 percent undecided. The survey was conducted between Jan. 18 and yesterday and has an error margin of plus-or-minus 4.7 percentage points.
Same Event
Romney and Gingrich are scheduled to appear at dueling events today, set for the same time at the same barbecue restaurant in Greenville. Both campaigns say they intend to keep their plans to visit Tommy’s Country Ham House, eight hours before polls close in the state at 7 p.m.
Arriving in South Carolina after winning the New Hampshire primary, Romney’s support in polls is slipping amid questions about his wealth, his taxes, and attempts by Gingrich and Santorum to rally fiscal and social conservatives around their candidacies.
During the first week in January, Romney had an 18-point lead in a South Carolina poll. Now, he and his advisers may face the prospect of a drawn-out nominating fight extending into the spring.
Some prominent Republicans seeking an alternative to Romney have rallied to Gingrich in recent days, including former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, actor Chuck Norris, and Michael Reagan, a talk show host and son of former President Ronald Reagan. The Romney campaign has touted support from South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and Ohio Senator Rob Portman.
Ethics Probe
Seeking to regain ground, Romney and his backers called on Gingrich to release details of a 1997 congressional investigation into ethics charges when he was House speaker. The investigation resulted in Gingrich being reprimanded by fellow lawmakers and charged with a $300,000 fine in chamber- reimbursement costs.
“You know it’s going to get out before the general election,” said Romney. “He ought to get it out now.”
Gingrich scoffed at the demand, referring to what he said is a 900-page cache of information publicly available on the matter and Romney’s refusal to immediately release his tax returns.
“Give me a break,” Gingrich told reporters after the town hall in Orangeburg. “I refuse to take seriously any request from the Romney campaign to disclose anything, because they’re clearly not going to disclose anything at any level that involves him.”
Tax Returns
Romney, a multimillionaire from his days as a private- equity executive, has been dogged by questions during the South Carolina campaign about why he’s refusing to provide any tax returns until April -- when his party’s nomination battle may effectively be over.
On Jan. 17, Romney said his effective tax rate is “probably” close to 15 percent because much of his income comes from investments.
Romney supporters worked to discount the tax issue, arguing that voters were more focused on jobs and the economy.
“The people of South Carolina are not talking about tax returns,” said South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who has spent days campaigning with Romney. “They want to know how you’re gonna bring jobs.”
As the candidates sparred, South Carolina was living up to its reputation as a hotbed of dark political arts where whisper campaigns and anonymously circulated fliers can spread misinformation with the potential to damage candidates.
False Statement
A phony e-mail was circulating among South Carolinians that purported to be a statement from Gingrich saying, falsely, that he forced his second wife Marianne to have an abortion. His spokesman, R.C. Hammond, said the statement was a fake and Gingrich denounced it, saying the perpetrators should be prosecuted.
“I am sick of the kind of dishonest campaigns that we see, where people fake somebody else’s material for purposes of causing trouble 24 hours before a primary,” Gingrich said.
Earlier, Santorum told reporters that voters were receiving fake telephone calls purporting to be from his campaign saying he had endorsed Romney for the 2012 nomination.
“I think negative robo-calls are sort of the lowest form of campaigning,” Santorum said.
Negative Advertisements
On the airwaves, South Carolina voters were being barraged with a flood of negative television advertisements.
An ad for Santorum targets Romney, pressing the case that he wouldn’t offer a clear alternative to President Barack Obama.
“Why would we ever vote for someone who’s just like Barack Obama when we can unite behind Rick Santorum and beat Obama?” a narrator asks.
Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney political action committee operating independently of his campaign, is airing an anti- Gingrich commercial featuring clips of him admitting past errors.
“Haven’t we had enough mistakes?” a narrator asks.
Paul wrote his supporters calling Gingrich a “counterfeit conservative.”
In the letter that said Gingrich “has a long record of liberal appeasement, flip-flopping on key issues, and lobbying for insider millions,” Paul cast himself as “the only true conservative in the top-tier of candidates running” for the Republican nomination.
Light Schedule
Paul made a series of stops across the state yesterday, an escalation of what had largely been a light schedule for him since New Hampshire’s primary.
Santorum appealed to voters packed into Hudson’s Smokehouse barbecue restaurant in Lexington not to choose Romney simply because they believed he was the only candidate with the ability to win the nomination. “Don’t compromise,” he said.
Still, Santorum told reporters he was just looking for a “respectable showing” today that would allow him to stay in the race as it heads to Florida, which holds its primary on Jan. 31.
“I feel confident we hang around after this, just like an episode of ‘Survivor’ -- just don’t get voted off the island.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Lisa Lerer in Washington at llerer@bloomberg.net; Julie Hirschfeld Davis in Washington at jdavis159@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at jcummings21@bloomberg.net
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