Photo Illustration by Andy Keller
The Lazzara Performance Hall is being decked out in red, white, and blue as the gears are set in motion for the University of North Florida to host the GOP presidential candidate debate. This nationally-televised event has hundreds of people including Jacksonville locals, government dignitaries and students flocking to take part in this key debate that will greatly influence the fourth primary of the Republican Party.
The Florida primary will be held state-wide on Tuesday, January 31. With the debate at UNF being so close to the date of the primary, the four Republican candidates are sure to be fired up during the debate as pivotal issues are volleyed back and forth and jabs are taken at each other’s campaign strategies. The GOP Debate will take place at UNF’s Fine Arts Center in the Lazzara Performance Hall on January 26 at 8 p.m.
Excitement is growing on the Jacksonville University campus as enthusiastic students eagerly await this mainstream event that is happening so close to home; amid all the excitement, however, there are some students who haven’t given the debate a second thought.
“I personally won’t be watching because I know at the end of the day I will be voting for Obama,” said junior and political science major Alfonso Williams, “I believe he’s earned the chance to finish what he started.”
Florida locals have been bombarded with campaigning tactics for weeks, and these robo-calls and super PAC ads are sure to continue until the time of the primary. The Republican Party’s race for the nomination for the presidency began about a year ago and already has gathered more of the mass media’s attention than any election cycle before it. Interestingly enough, though each candidate has had their turn in the lead, there has been no prime candidate to continually hold the number one slot in the polls.
When Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker, claimed a huge victory in South Carolina’s primary last week, he jumped ahead in the polls taking an impressive lead over his contenders.
Though Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts Governor, was primarily thought to have attained success in Iowa, he so far has only been able to achieve a small victory in New Hampshire. It was Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum who proved to be the actual victor in Iowa when he came out with the upper hand after a recount, holding 24.6 percent of the votes as opposed to Romney’s 24.5 percent.
The competition has escalated in recent weeks as Romney and Gingrich exchange blows through their debates and “attack ads” that have been circulating, and things will continue to heat up as each competitor strives to take the lead in this race for the nomination. Because of alleged imprudence in Gingrich’s past two marriages and various comments that have been seen as being racially subjective, Gingrich has recently come under attack by the court of public opinion and leftist media analysts. Strangely it was during these attacks Gingrich was able to gather a huge following united against what he defined as a “liberal media smear”.
Romney has also come under fire from each of the parties and the media as well, with charges that he gained his wealth through shrewd tax-paying practices and crude business and that he over stated his self-entitlement as a job creator. It is expected for candidates to overturn their tax records to the public, but whenever Romney was asked to release his, he quickly dodged the question and moved on. Since then however, he has publicized that his bracket is around 15 percent, and he has agreed to make his most recent records for 2010 available along with a projection of what his taxes will look like for 2011.
Though Texas Congressman Ron Paul has had a strong group of supporters behind him by way of social media and grassroots movements, he has been falling behind. Each of the candidates has held the lead at one time or another with the exception of Congressman Paul who, throughout each of the primaries, has seemed to be continually stuck in second place.
Everyone is waiting to see how Santorum will fair in the upcoming primary; he may either do well or fall flat, and this will have major influence on the remainder of the race for the nomination. If he can overtake Paul and hold on to third place, some believe that the competition will be reduced to three candidates; others are certain that it will be a head-to-head battle nonetheless. Though unlikely, if either Paul or Santorum can claim a victory in the Florida primary, the four candidates may continue to go round and round well into February.
More than likely, the first and second slots will be claimed by Gingrich and Romney. Then one will rise to the top, taking a clear lead in the polls, and claim the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla this summer.
After the several debates that have already taken place in Florida, the upcoming GOP debate in Jacksonville makes evident the key role that Florida holds not only in the Republican primary, but also in the approaching Presidential election this fall. Voters will rally behind these candidates and ultimately the final nominee with intentions of outing President Obama in the November election.
America has faced many hardships in the past few years unlike anything that the nation has witnessed since the 70’s and 80’s. Steadfast republicans are advocating the reestablishment of the Reaganite principles that their party holds in such high esteem, with the hopes that this “land of the free” will lift up its head to the light and, once again, begin to grow.