McCain, Romney battle in tight Republican race

MIAMI (Reuters) - Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Sunday jostled for dominance in a tightening race for the Republican presidential nomination that could hinge on competing messages on the Iraq war and the flagging U.S. economy.

Florida will be a crucial test of which of those issues will resonate with the Republican Party, whose core voters are a major force among the 1.5 million people expected to turn out for the state's primary on Tuesday.

McCain and Romney split the last three contests -- McCain won South Carolina and Romney won Michigan and scarcely contested Nevada. A new Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll showed the two deadlocked at 30 percent each in Florida.

The winner could gain powerful momentum heading into "Super Tuesday" on February 5 when more than 20 states vote in a blitz of primaries that could anoint a Republican front-runner to contest November's election to succeed President George W. Bush.

McCain and Romney fought for control of Florida's airwaves, holding rallies and tightly scripted news conferences across the nation's fourth-biggest state.

"If it wasn't for this challenge, if it wasn't for Iraq, if it wasn't for this, I'm not sure I'd be running for president," McCain told reporters aboard his campaign bus, as he traveled from Tampa to Lakeland.

"I believe it is the defining issue. Now, if somebody else wants to believe it's the economy ... that's fine."

The 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war and four-term senator, who would be the oldest person ever elected to a first presidential term, has argued that his experience in the Navy and 25 years of leadership in Congress would make him a better commander in chief.

SHIFTING TOPICS

A day earlier, McCain accused Romney of backing a set withdrawal date for U.S. troops from Iraq, a distortion of Romney's record that he angrily denied.

In April, Romney said Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki should have timetables and milestones for reducing the number of U.S. troops in Iraq but those should not be made public. He stopped short of seeking a specific date for withdrawing troops.

"That's yesterday's news," Romney told reporters on Sunday in Sweetwater, a Miami suburb. "I understand he's anxious to try and see if he can't get the topic away from the economy."

Romney panned McCain's ability to handle the U.S. economy, zeroing in on a proposal by McCain and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, that would set limits on the emission of greenhouse gasses.

The McCain-Lieberman bill would allow those who exceed limits of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to trade with those under the limit, a plan known as cap-and-trade.

Romney, a multimillionaire former venture capitalist, said the plan equates a tax of roughly 50 cents a gallon on gasoline and would drive up utility costs by 20 percent.

"He wants to talk about anything but that, and I won't let him," Romney said. "It would depress the economy just at a time when we are trying to stimulate the economy."

Donning a tropical shirt, Romney hunted for votes among Cuban-American Republicans at a rally in a Miami suburb, vowing to "never to give in" to Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Miami's Cuban-Americans make up about 10 percent of the Republican primary voters. Romney's efforts to court them were dealt a setback when Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, the nation's first Cuban-American senator, endorsed McCain.

(Editing by Chris Wilson)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)