GOP candidates to debate in Fla. tonight

US presidential hopeful John McCain greets people during a campaign visit to Miami. Republicans were campaigning full-bore in Florida, which on January 29 will stage a four-way fight between new front-runner McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani

(AFP/Getty Images/Joe Raedle)

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

BOCA RATON, Fla. - For Republican presidential contenders John McCain and Mitt Romney, Thursday's debate presented a chance to step out smartly in the struggle for victory in next week's Florida primary.

For Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee, it represented perhaps a last, best hope to shake up a statewide — and national — campaign that appears to be slowly leaving them behind.

Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian-leaning Texan with a vocal following, also had a spot on the stage for the prime-time debate, broadcast on MSNBC, five days before the primary.

The Florida primary offers 57 Republican National Convention delegates to the winner. It is the first big state to vote in the nominating campaign, the first winner-take-all contest in terms of delegates, and the final election before a virtual national primary on Feb. 5.

The five contenders shared a stage as polls suggested Romney and McCain were co-frontrunners in the state. Both the former Massachusetts governor and the Arizona senator are campaigning aggressively and have sparred periodically over the economy and tax cuts.

Giuliani and Huckabee were well behind in the same surveys, and struggling.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, has little money and has campaigned sporadically so far. He has not yet begun to advertise on television in the state.

Giuliani, the former New York mayor broke off campaigning earlier this week to fly to his homestate briefly for fundraising. After abandoning a string of earlier states, he has spent two weeks campaigning in Florida, a state that amounts to a virtual must-win territory for him.

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Poll: McCain, Giuliani tied in New York

By The Associated Press

THE RACE: The presidential race for Democrats and Republicans in New York.

THE NUMBERS - DEMOCRATS

Hillary Rodham Clinton, 51 percent

Barack Obama, 25 percent

John Edwards, 11 percent

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THE NUMBERS - REPUBLICANS

John McCain, 30 percent

Rudy Giuliani, 30 percent

Mitt Romney, 9 percent

Mike Huckabee, 8 percent

Fred Thompson, 8 percent

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OF INTEREST:

The third poll released in two days finds McCain has pulled even with Giuliani in the former New York mayor's home state. Two polls on Monday had McCain leading by as much as 12 percent. Seventy-one percent of Giuliani's backers say they are "not too likely" or "not likely at all" to change their minds before the Feb. 5 primary. McCain gets that kind of loyalty from 46 percent.

Obama was the pick of 45 percent of the likely primary voters who are black, compared to 37 percent for Clinton. The senator from New York captured 54 percent of the women's vote, compared to 20 percent for Obama. Clinton's lead among men narrows somewhat, 47 percent to 32 percent for Obama, an Illinois senator.

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The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll was conducted by phone from Jan. 14 to Jan 21. On the Republican side, it involved interviews with 331 likely primary voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.4 percent. It also polled 544 likely Democratic primary voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percent.

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