Attendees at Romney's rallies across the state, like Keith Eshelman of Lutz,. Fla., who called Romney "a complete conservative," seemed to genuinely embrace Romney's "Washington is broken" message.

"I think Romney with his business background can do the right things for the American economy," said Eshelman, who wore an Uncle Sam Halloween costume to events.

Fort Myers real estate agent Charlie Pigeon, 64, said he is tired of having President Bush in the White House and Romney would be a great step up.

"We need to do better than a D-minus president, and I think Romney has an A-plus brain," Pigeon said at a Romney rally at the Fort Myers airport on Monday. "You have to understand where revenue comes from. He knows what it takes."

Pigeon also had problems with McCain's age and political record.

"The guy's not old, he's ancient," Pigeon said of McCain. "He's a one-time hero but a current traitor to the Republican Party."

Pigeon said the McCain-Feingold law, which changed rules on campaign financing, and other McCain bills make him "seem more like a Clinton every day."

Romney supporter Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., offered that Tuesday's results have given Republican voters the choice between one conservative and one moderate. "Florida has narrowed down this race to a two-person battle," Feeney said. "We wanted to win tonight, but second place is more than enough to create the contest we need on Feb. 5 between traditional Reagan conservatives and Rockefeller Republicans."

"We're going on," Romney's wife, Ann, said. "We feel as though the conservatives are starting to rally around Mitt. This is just a send-off point. This is not an end, it's another beginning. We have 22 more states to go after, and we will be able to do that."

Romney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said Romney's message on the economy did work. He said this was a close finish and it is important to remember that McCain had 100 percent name identification and spent a lot of money in the state in the last few weeks. Key endorsements for McCain by popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida Sen. Mel Martinez didn't help either.

"It was not by any means a blow-out," Madden said. "We find it encouraging that we did very well with conservative voters."

Madden said many decisions on ads, candidate travel and other strategies will be made in the next 24 hours, and a lot depends on resources. "I probably couldn't give you anymore information without showing our hand so to speak," Madden said.

Thursday will mark the latest Federal Election Commission deadline for the candidates to report their spending through the end of 2007, so there will be a clearer picture of how much personal money Romney has put into the campaign.

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E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com