LEAD: Gingrich, Romney escalate battle for Florida's Republican prize

Jan 24, 2012, 5:42 GMT

Washington - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Monday began a series of attacks on rival Newt Gingrich, painting him as unreliable and unelectable as the party's nominating contest shifted to Florida.

The large state, which votes January 31, is a true electoral prize for the candidates seeking to face President Barack Obama in November presidential elections and presents a more diverse electorate than in previous contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

With a different candidate winning each of the previous three states, Florida has become even more important. Romney's campaign hopes to regain his position as the party frontrunner after an unexpected trouncing by Gingrich in South Carolina's primary Saturday, while Gingrich sees a chance to solidify himself as a conservative alternative to the more moderate Romney.

Gingrich's 40-per-cent victory in South Carolina essentially torpedoed Romney's effort to wrap up the nomination with a series of quick victories in the four January contests.

On Monday evening, the two men faced off in a debate in Tampa, Florida - the 18th since Republicans began campaigning in the autumn - where Romney charged that Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, misbehaved in office and made lucrative use of his influence in Washington afterwards as a lobbyist.

'The speaker was given the opportunity to be the leader of our party in 1994, and after four years he resigned in disgrace,' Romney said.

Gingrich denied he had worked as a lobbyist, saying he had only been a consultant, adding: 'I'm not going to spend the evening trying to chase governor Romney's misinformation.'

In a television ad that began airing Monday, Romney questions Gingrich's years working for government mortgage backer Freddie Mac that is blamed for helping to create the housing crisis that led to the 2007-2009 economic crisis.

'While Florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, Newt Gingrich cashed in,' the ad proclaims. It challenges the former speaker of the House of Representatives' depiction of his work for the agency and points to his resignation as speaker.

'If Newt wins, this guy would be very happy,' the ad concludes with a smiling photo of Obama.

In comments at campaign events Monday, Romney described Gingrich as 'erratic' and warned a Gingrich campaign would be at risk for damaging allegations being released just before the November general election.

The remarks and advertising blitz are a shift from Romney's previous focus on Obama rather than his party rivals.

Shortly before the debate, Gingrich released some documents about his Washington lobbying work, which reveal he received 300,000 dollars from Freddie Mac for work as a 'historian.'

But he reportedly earned up to 1.8 million dollars from Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2008, according to the Washington Post and other media. The money was paid to him to convince Republicans in Congress to support changes at the semi-public agency.

'It's not true. He knows it's not true,' Gingrich said of Romney's characterization. 'He is deliberately saying things he knows are false. I just think that's what the next week will be like.'

Romney in turn has promised to release some of his tax returns on Tuesday, a move that may be strategically overshadowed by the media focus on Obama's state of the union speech in the evening.