Romney pushing hard in Florida

SWEETWATER, Fla. — With one day to go until Florida voters go to the polls, Mitt Romney brought his message to some Hispanic voters on Sunday and will hit five cities via plane today.

Polls show Romney and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., still in a tight race for first place, with Rudy Giuliani —who at one time was the front-runner in the state — still lagging behind.

Romney continues to push his business experience and economic expertise while McCain, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war, is emphasizing his leadership skills and military background, making claims that Romney wants a date certain to pull troops out of Iraq. Romney emphasizes he has not called for such a thing.

Romney says quotes from McCain indicate that he does not understand the economy and that the senator's proposals would raise gasoline and electricity prices. He also reminds voters that McCain initially voted against President Bush's tax cuts.

"I think he wants to talk about anything but that, and I won't let him," Romney said of McCain.

McCain got a boost late Saturday with the endorsement of popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who campaigned with him around the state Sunday. Florida Sen. Mel Martinez and the three Cuban American congressmen from South Florida also support McCain.

Romney congratulated McCain on the endorsements, saying he has some of his own as well but noted that the voters will make the decision on Tuesday.

"I expect that I'm going to win this not because of endorsements but because of my message of bringing economic strength and vitality to Florida and to the nation," Romney told reporters. "I simply don't think that the people of Florida are going to say the nominee of our party ought to be a person, who on more than one occasion, has expressed lack of understanding of our economy at a time when the economy is the number one issue that people are talking about here in the state of Florida."

Romney reached out to the Hispanic voters Sunday with a rally at the Jorge Mas Canosa Center, a youth center in the middle of predominantly Cuban and Central American neighborhood. A giant Cuban flag hung on the back wall.

Craig Romney, who spent his LDS mission in Chile, addressed the audience of nearly 150 in Spanish before the former Massachusetts governor took the stage in a Cuban guayabera shirt — a white gauzy shirt with pockets on the front.