Giuliani and Romney Put Focus on Florida

Republican Presidential Candidates Spending Heavily in Sunshine State

Republican presidential candidates Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney both spent heavily in Florida over the past three months, underscoring the newfound strategic importance of the state in the quest for the GOP nomination.

Campaign finance records released last night show that Giuliani has spent more than $400,000 there, more than he has put into Iowa and New Hampshire combined. In June, both Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, paid $100,000 to obtain copies of voter files from the state Republican Party.

Romney dropped about $850,000 in Florida -- more than he has spent in South Carolina -- though he has continued to pour resources into all the states with early primaries, especially New Hampshire.

So far only Giuliani and Romney have filed reports detailing their spending and fundraising between April 1 and the end of June with the Federal Election Commission, which are due tomorrow. Giuliani appears to have ended the quarter as the Republican with the most cash on hand, $18.3 million.

Romney showed $12.1 million in his account, a figure aided by an infusion of $6.5 million in personal funds that he loaned his campaign. Romney, whose wealth is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, has directed almost $9 million of his own money to his bid this year. Without the personal funds, his remaining cash would have stood at about $3 million, putting him close to the disappointing numbers that required McCain to lay off huge numbers of his campaign staff. Romney spent more than $20 million in the three-month period, meaning that both he and McCain doled out more during the past three months than they raised, a risky calculation at this stage of a presidential contest. Giuliani's pace of spending nearly doubled -- he spent $11 million during the quarter -- though he also continued to raise about $1 million a week.

Kevin Madden, a Romney spokesman, said there was a reason the pace of spending has not hurt Romney the way it has McCain, who yesterday admitted having made "mistakes" by not using his money "in the most effective way."

"If you're doing it right, you're investing money," Madden said. "We weren't as well-known. In order to introduce Governor Romney, we had to spend money on [advertising] and invest in infrastructure in the early states."

That has included doling out an unprecedented $500,000 in incremental payments of $500 and $1,000 to local organizers in Iowa for what his bookkeepers termed "get-out-the-vote consulting." It also meant building what Madden called a "very robust" field operation in Florida that is about the same size as the one in Iowa. Romney spent more than $4 million on an early run of television ads, including a national cable purchase and a brief appearance on Florida stations. One hefty expense that should be slightly curtailed for Romney is ground travel. The finance records show that Romney gave his campaign a $61,000 Winnebago.

The filings also revealed a worrisome trend for Romney. In addition to raising less than he did in the first quarter, he also had fewer donors who gave more than $200 to the campaign (filings do not include donors who gave less than $200). His filings also reinforced a trend from the first three months of the year: strong backing from fellow Mormons. Of the top 25 Zip codes where he raised the most money, four were in Utah, including a haul of more than $200,000 around Salt Lake City.

Florida's elevated status owes to its new Jan. 29 primary date, which places it one week ahead of the crush of early primaries in delegate-rich states such as California, New Jersey and New York. The date change was finalized in May, and appeared to have a direct effect on the way candidates are approaching spending decisions at this early stage.

"I think it goes without saying, it's had a significant impact," said Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. "Ever since that law became law, we have seen candidates all over the place."

Strategists said the state has the potential to restore momentum to a candidate who performs below expectations in Iowa and New Hampshire, or to provide a boost to a contender who opts out of one or more of the first early contests.

Giuliani's campaign announced last month that he would not participate in the Ames straw poll in Iowa in August, and polls in that state show him far behind Romney. Giuliani advisers seem to have adopted a strategy of looking beyond Iowa, and have been most aggressive in the states that will vote on Feb. 5, including California and New York. The campaign announced this week that it had added full-time staffers in Florida, California and Illinois.

Giuliani has held double the number of events in Florida as he has in Iowa. He attended a NASCAR race in Daytona Beach last week and is headed to the state again Tuesday for a stop in the Miami area.

In terms of organizing, "we're beyond the states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina into big states like Florida, California and many others right now," said Michael DuHaime, Giuliani's campaign manager, on a conference call with reporters last week.

That broader national strategy has been accompanied by a hefty price tag. He directed more than $175,000 to Elliott Asset Management for use of a private aircraft. Paul Singer, a New York financier who has pledged to raise more than $500,000 for Giuliani, is a general partner at Elliott. Giuliani's payroll costs increased from $1.3 million in the first three months of the year to $2.5 million from the first quarter to the second. Bill Paxon, a Giuliani fundraiser and former congressman, said that the former mayor's supporters believe his increased spending activity is well within reason.

"We've seen what can happen to a campaign that over-anticipates, and spends based on that anticipation," Paxon said.

Database editor Sarah Cohen contributed to this report.