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Romney PAC makes big Fla ad buy; Gingrich PAC maybe not far behind

Posted Jan 12, 2012 by William March

Updated Jan 12, 2012 at 05:14 PM

The super PAC battle for Florida is beginning.

As Mitt Romney campaigns through South Florida today, Restore Our Future, a PAC backing him, has bought $3.4 million worth of television time, most of it likely for an anti-Newt Gringrich ad called “Desperate”—see it here.

At the same time, the Romney campaign—which can’t legally coordinate its activities with the super PAC—is running Spanish-language television and radio ads in Florida featuring two prominent Romney endorsers, U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami.

Winning Our Future, a super PAC backing Gingrich, is likely not far behind.

PAC spokesman Edmund Wright said today he’s not aware of an ad buy in Florida by the organization yet, but “We definitely have aggressive plans for Florida.”

In South Carolina, Winning Our Future has run ads including one called “King of Bain,” blasting Romney as a corporate raider who, the ad contends, put people out of work by buying and breaking up companies. It’s based on a half-hour film by the organization; you can find the trailer and the film here.

Gingrich, like Rick Perry and other GOP contenders, has voiced harsh criticism of Romney over the subject. But in response, many Romney backers and conservative Republicans including Rush Limbaugh responded that the criticism aids and abets Democratic attacks on corporate political power and the nation’s rich-poor divide. In response, Gingrich acknowledged recently that the language he used criticizing Romney may have gone too far.

Asked whether the super PAC will run the King of Bain ad in Florida, or whether Gingrich’s backtracking will cause the PAC to do the same, Wright said, “I certainly cannot coordinate with the speaker, but some of the class warfare tinge to the debate has jumped out in front of the narrow message we were trying to get across.”

That message, he said, is that Romney wasn’t the job creater he claims to be and isn’t as electable as backers say he is.

Wright added that King of Bain has received so much news coverage the organization hasn’t spent much to air it in South Carolina, and may not in Florida—“It’s getting visibility on its own, which allows us the flexibility to run other ads and get back on message,” he said.