Politics
Election 2012: Obama, Romney tussle it out in Florida
The recession took a deep toll on the state’s recreation industry, especially around Orlando. A decline in foreign trade hurt the Port of Tampa, Florida’s largest shipping port. The housing crisis fueled widespread home foreclosures and severely hampered the construction industry on which much of the region’s immigrant-heavy workforce relies.
Florida’s unemployment rate was 8.6 percent in May, slightly higher than the national average and all other presidential battleground states except Nevada.
A little more than four months before the November 6 election, Obama narrowly leads Romney in statewide polls.
President Obama and his Democratic allies spent roughly US$17 million in television advertising in Florida from April, when Romney effectively became the GOP presidential nominee, through last week. Romney’s campaign hasn’t been on the air in the state since then, but his allies have doled out US$12 million during that time. The ads are heavily concentrated on the Tampa and Orlando media markets, which are cheaper than Miami’s and reach far more swing voters.
Of the US$2.8 million spent on TV ads in the state last week, US$1.8 million was in this region.
Obama is on defense in the I-4 corridor, which he won by a very slim majority in 2008 after Bush won it in 2000 and 2004. Republicans hope that holding their national convention in Tampa in August will give them an edge.
In a close race where anything could be determinative, organization could count hugely and, on this point for now at least, Obama has an advantage. He never dismantled his 2008 campaign infrastructure in the state and has 36 campaign offices. Romney has quickly opened 23, run jointly with the Republican National Committee.
