Posted on 03/04/2016 1:08:40 PM PST by BlackFemaleArmyColonel
The Florida duel between Donald Trump and Marco Rubio has a new player: Ted Cruz.
The Texas senator has opened 10 campaign offices in the Sunshine State ahead of the March 15 primary, volunteers told the Miami Herald. The campaign confirmed the new offices Friday, including one that opened a week ago on Miami's Sunset Road and 97th Avenue.
"Following a strong showing on Super Tuesday, the Cruz for President Campaign is communicating a serious commitment to competing hard in the winner-take-all Sunshine State primary on March 15th," the campaign said in a statement.
Lourdes Castillo de la Peña, a Cruz volunteer, said even if no Cruz campaign stops are announced before next Thursday's Miami GOP debate, his fervent supporters have been making voter calls and organizing teams to knock on doors. She hopes to host Cruz's wife, Heidi, in Miami in the coming week.
Manny Roman, the Miami-Dade GOP vice-chairman who was nearly kicked out of the party for publicly announcing his role in Cruz's campaign, made sure to stand just outside Rubio's Miami rally Tuesday night, to remind reporters that some Cuban-American Republicans in town were backing a different senator for president.
It's unclear if Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will campaign in Florida. Kasich has to focus on his own home state, which votes the same day as Florida. And candidates who don't have a chance to win Florida outright sometimes skip the state altogether, because it's so expensive to campaign across Florida's 10 media markets. It costs a campaign about $2 million a week to advertise in all those places -- far more than a candidate is willing to spend for a no-delegates, second-place finish. No Cruz ads have hit airwaves here yet.
Cruz is third in Real Clear Politics' average of Florida polls.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.typepad.com ...
Everything about Cruz turns me off these days. Everything. I don’t want to see him, hear him or think about him.
[”..a serious commitment to competing hard in the winner-take-all Sunshine State primary on March 15th,” ]
Translation: Ramping up the sleazy push-poll robocalls and voter violation emails....
[I don’t want to see him, hear him or think about him.]
I can’t to the remote fast enough to change the channel whenever he comes on TV...
Wait, isn’t Ted supposed to stand aside in Florida so Rubio can have it? Aren’t Rubio and Cruz supposed to split the states to hurt Trump? What does Romney think about this?
Same here.
Well know we know where the new Cruz-Bush team is headed. They were hired to work Florida since they know the turf.
Cruz pulling 8% in Florida in a recent poll. He’s got a mountain bigger than Everest to climb in Florida.
I’m sorry, Ted, but my Fl primary vote is going to Trump.
Go Cruz! I will be very happy to see Rubio gone the same way as Jeb
I WAS a big Cruz fan for over a year?
Last night was a new low!!!!!
Florida doesn”t want Cruz!
He’s in Trump territory!!!!
Go back to Texas Cruz!
Not good. FL is a keystone of any Republican POTUS win. (after Nov 2000 how could we ever forget)
This is a move to end Rubio campaign. They don’t intend to win, just drive the fatally wounded Rubio out.
Mine too. Gonna go vote tomorrow and avoid the crunch on the 15th.
Because Florida is a make or break state for him. Could be for Trump too.
Trump been softened up a bit under the withering media scrutiny. They’re all dirty tricks accusations but they’ve thrown everything at him. Trump must hold.
Vote Trump
TRANSLATION: The far left Miami Herald, realizing Rubio is not going to win, is pushing Cruz to backstop the GOPe with another DC desian.
Romney must have issued the order.
Unless he has polling very different from the public polls, I’d prefer he focus on other states where he can get some delegates - unless his goal is just to get Rubio to finish 3rd in his home state so he will drop out.
Nate Silver gives Trump a 68% chance of winning, Rubio 31% and Cruz 1%. So yeah, Ted, this is just a brilliant place to spend your remaining money.
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/election-2016/primary-forecast/florida-republican/
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