Romney Leads in Florida, Early Reports Say

A Small Sampling of Republican Voters Shows Romney Leading in Florida Primary

By Sherwood Ross

Early Republican primary voters in two Miami, Florida, area precincts Tuesday cast their ballots decisively for Mitt Romney over Newt Gingrich. Rick Santorum lagged behind in third and Ron Paul trailed poorly in fourth place.

In light, early morning voting in upscale Coral Gables, Fla., former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got 56% of the ballots cast, compared to 32% for Newt Gingrich. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum got 8% of the vote and Texas Congressman Ron Paul got 4%.

The sampling was conducted of voters leaving two polling places by Sherwood Ross, a free-lance writer and head of Sherwood Ross Associates, a Miami-based news and public relations firm. Ross formerly reported for the City News Bureau of Chicago and the Chicago Daily News.

Voters who backed Romney gave as their reasons, “He’s electable,” and “I don’t like any of them but he’s the best” and “I trust him and his policies, he’s a family man.” One woman supporter simply said, “(I) love him.” Another woman who had entered the polling booth with the idea of supporting Romney changed her mind and voted for Santorum because “he was really clean.” Overall, Romney got a higher percentage of women voters than male voters--- about 5 to 4 ratio.

Boosters of Gingrich also said they believed he could defeat President Obama. And a woman supporter of Santorum said, “He talked about issues. Romney saturated the state with money.”

The only voter who mentioned foreign policy was a woman who backed Paul. She said, “He doesn’t want us to be in a lot of foreign countries. Also, I like he’s for liberty and freedom at home.”

In Florida’s winner-take-all Republican convention today, all 50 delegate votes are awarded to the candidate with the total highest vote. Those who do not win do not get any delegates.

Poll watchers described the turnout as “very light,” which is often the case in U.S. primaries. The weather was pleasant but cloudy.

Incredibly, to this observer, only one voter interviewed mentioned anything about U.S. involvement abroad----and that was a Ron Paul supporter who also denounced the loss of liberties in the country.

(Sherwood Ross is a Miammi-based public relations consultant who formerly worked for the Chicago Daily News and New York Herald-Tribune. Further information:)

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