NMX: Sayfie Says Romney Must Win Florida

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney must win Florida if he hopes to wrest the presidency from Barack Obama, attorney and Florida political blogger Justin Sayfie tells Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.

Sayfie, in an interview at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, said Obama has a path to the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win without Florida, but Romney does not, adding “certainly this state’s going to be hard fought. Each campaign is going to spend $50 million plus in this state to win those 29 electoral votes so whoever wins Florida will win the election.”

Watch the exclusive interview here.


In order to win the state, Romney must focus on the economy.

“Florida is just like the rest of the country,” he said. “Our economy is still hurting in Florida. It’s getting better but it is a far cry from where it was several years ago. Our unemployment rate’s still too high. There are almost a million Floridians actively looking for work. So Gov. Romney’s message to Florida should be what his plans are to grow the economy and get jobs back growing in our country again.”

Sayfie, who served as communications director and speechwriter for former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, said that currently polls are showing a tight race in Florida with Obama having an edge that is within the margin of error.

“The polls are not fully capturing what I refer to as the enthusiasm gap between the Republican base and the Democrat base,” he added. “I was listening to a black radio station the other day and he had an advertisement which really surprised me that President Obama would be spending money trying to motivate his base. That’s one issue that the Republican base is very energized, very motivated to go out and vote. So, having said all that, I give the edge to Gov. Romney because of that enthusiasm gap.”

In other Florida elections, Sayfie said:

• Rep. Connie Mack has a chance to defeat Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., “but he needs some help from Mitt Romney.” “The convention and the strength of Gov. Romney’s campaign will have a great deal of impact on whether Connie Mack can pull it off,” he added.
• Rep. Allen West will remain in Congress. “He moved to a stronger district than he’s in right now and he’s done very well in fundraising. He has a lot of support both in his district from conservative voters across the country. He is targeted because he’s very outspoken. He’s very outspoken about his beliefs and that makes for an easy target for Democrats that want to run against him.”
• He was “shocked” that former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist endorsed Obama. “I was really surprised. … It’s very rare in politics that you see someone who spends his or her life as a member of one party … and then going ahead and endorsing one of the more liberal presidents that we’ve had in American history. So I found it very surprising. What it signals is that Charlie Crist wants to come back into electoral politics, he’s looking for a path and it appears that his path that he’s chosen is to get back and maybe to run even as a Democrat in Florida in the future.”