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ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Romney spokesman Kevin Madden, talking to reporters here, declared it a "two way" race that is now a "delegate hunt" going into February 5.

Madden said that the campaign is still working out which states to focus the most energy on, but the idea will be to look at states rich in delegates with large conservative voting blocks including Colorado, Missouri, Alabama, and Tennessee.

He said that John McCain had "institutional advantages" in Florida such as universal name recognition and the endorsements of Gov. Crist and Sen. Martinez. Oddly, he also noted that McCain spent a lot of money here in the past few weeks. Given how far back he was in the state earlier in the month, Madden said it could be argued that Romney's finish was "within the spread."

Asked about the significance of Rudy Giuliani's expected endorsement of McCain, he said now that it's a national race with 21 states in play next week, no one endorsement will have as much impact as Crist's endorsement did in Florida, though he acknowledged it would be a factor in New York and New Jersey.

topics:
John McCain, Energy