Giuliani Camp Plays 'Delegate Game'

Nov. 12, 2007— -- Rudy Giuliani's campaign manager predicted Monday that the former New York mayor would emerge from the slew of nomination contests taking place Feb. 5 with a "triple digit" lead in delegates.

"We are the only candidate on Feb. 5th who has, right now, a large number of delegates that we essentially can count on," said Mike DuHaime, Giuliani's campaign manager.

While Giuliani's top aides have long talked about, in one-on-one conversations, their unconventional strategy of de-emphasizing the early contests, Monday was the first time that DuHaime and strategy director Brent Seaborn reviewed their delegate math on a conference call open to all members of the media.

To gain the Republican presidential nomination, a candidate must receive 1,191 delegates, which amounts to just more than half of the 2,380 delegate votes that are cast at the party's national convention.

"I feel very, very confident as you start to look at the delegate count that the RNC just put out last week, you start to do this as a delegate game," DuHaime said, "and start to look at places where the mayor is very strong and look at where the other candidates are strong - this very much lines up very favorably right now for us."

Giuliani trails badly in Iowa, which holds its caucuses Jan. 3, and he finds himself also trailing in New Hampshire, a state which is likely to hold a primary Jan. 8.

But Giuliani's campaign is bullish on the former mayor's chances because he currently leads in the Jan. 29 primary in Florida, a state that his campaign calls the first "treasure trove" because it awards 57 delegates.

He also leads in the Feb. 5 primaries in New York (101 delegates), New Jersey (52 delegates), Connecticut (30 delegates) and Delaware (18 delegates).

His advantage in those four states is compounded by the fact that they award their delegates on a winner-take-all basis.