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Giuliani campaigns down to the wire in Florida

BY TOM BRUNE | tom.brune@newsday.com

January 28, 2008

VERO BEACH, Fla. - Rudy Giuliani and his troupe found themselves in familiar surroundings in the darkened hall of the Italian American Civic Association here as the former mayor made a plea for badly needed votes in tomorrow's all-important Florida primary.

"We've got to get the people out to vote," Giuliani said with a slight rasp in his voice. "If you've voted, you've got to get four or five people to vote for me. Will you do that?"

Someone in the crowd of New York retirees yelled, "You've got my vote, Rudy."

"Thank you," he replied.

For Giuliani and rivals Mitt Romney, John McCain and Mike Huckabee, it's time for closing arguments in what could be the most decisive of the early GOP primaries.

Yet none hit the trail with the same sense of urgency as Giuliani, who by his own design has turned Florida into the ultimate pass-fail test for his presidential ambitions.

Sidelined by bickering rivals, Giuliani launched a dual attack to gain attention. He went on the air, on CBS' "Face the Nation" in the morning and in an ad during "60 Minutes" at night. And he went on the ground, with a daylong bus tour up the state's east coast, from Boca Raton to Cocoa Beach.

Trailed by two dozen reporters, he put himself in friendly settings, most very New York.

"How could you not love this guy? After 9/11?" said Linda Neuman, a snowbird from Long Beach who winters in Boca Raton. "That's something you can never forget."

She came to see him at the modern orthodox Boca Raton Synagogue, in a town dubbed New York's sixth borough.

Wearing a skull cap, Giuliani did his best to sell himself, speaking of personal ties to Israel and a hard line against terrorists. He won the room. But still not sold was Neuman's husband, Herman, who was president of the Long Beach City Council 25 years ago.

"I don't feel anybody is really sincere regarding their comments on the economy and national security," he said. "It's all rhetoric."

Daniel Katz, sitting with his young son Jacob, liked Giuliani but griped about recent polls. "Who would ever have thought Romney would get more votes than Giuliani?" he said. "It's like he's trying to lose."

He added, "My guess is that he'll learn from this lesson, and in four years he'll run again."

Next, at the Paison Restaurant in Port St. Lucie, Giuliani addressed another friendly crowd in an open courtyard.

He asked for their votes, then delivered his vote joke.

"How many of you have already voted?" he asked to a show of hands. "You can't vote again." Laughter. "We're not Democrats." More laughter.

Then on to the Italian-American club here, where he appeared with his wife, Judith, and won warm applause.

Bill Hannon, a retired New York police detective, said he knew Giuliani in the 1970s when he was a prosecutor. But he said he can't vote here - he's still registered in East Williston.

The final stop seemed out of step, at a Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach. There Giuliani signed a surf board and addressed the fighting and attention-grabbing McCain and Romney.

"Presidential election is not about name-calling. Presidential election is not about gotcha and almost, like, high school politics," Giuliani said.

"How about voting for somebody who is not attacking, Rudy Giuliani?"