After trailing McCain in Fla., Obama makes up ground

ByABC News
July 31, 2008, 11:28 PM

— -- When Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain visit Florida on Friday they'll find a split electorate in a state that's been eager to play a decisive role since primaries ended in June.

Obama has been playing catch-up with a vengeance after refusing to campaign here during the primaries because of a Democratic Party dispute over its January contest date. He has spent $5 million on TV ads in Florida, more than in any other state, and dispatched 200 staffers there. McCain is not airing any TV ads in Florida and has 40 staffers.

After trailing McCain in May polls by as much as 10 points, Obama has squeaked by his Republican rival. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows Obama up 46% to 44%, within the margin of error.

Friday, Obama holds a town hall on economic issues in St. Petersburg and McCain holds a fundraising concert in Panama City. Both will speak at the National Urban League annual convention in Orlando over the weekend.

For McCain, Florida is the state that handed him the nomination when he knocked out Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney in the Jan. 29 Republican primary. He's backed by the state's popular Gov. Charlie Crist, and he has emphasized he lived in Jacksonville after his 1973 release from a North Vietnamese POW camp.

Both candidates are advertising on radio to Hispanic voters, where polls show Obama with a big lead. Jewish voters, traditionally Democratic, also favor Obama but not currently by as large a margin as they did John Kerry in 2004. As a result, Jewish voters are "definitely" a target audience for McCain, says Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer. To that end, McCain's campaign has frequently deployed Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who will campaign in the state next week. "He's not only a leader, he's a Jewish leader and they follow what he has to say," Greer says.

Still, McCain is not on TV to counter Obama's barrage and the Democrat is running as many ads in North Florida and the heavily Republican panhandle as in the southern part of the state that usually favors Democrats, points out Ken Goldstein of the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project, which tracks political ad spending.