Campaiging continues in Florida, with signs that Newt Gingrich is continuing to enjoy a surge. Plus live reaction and fallout from the state of the union address
Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Florida primary campaign, with a bit of state of the union fallout thrown in for one day only.
Here's a summary of where we're at this morning.
• Newt Gingrich's momentum in Florida appears to be growing. He drew a crowd of about 2,000 people at a rally on Tuesday night. A Quinnipiac poll out this morning shows him gaining on Romney, although the former Massachusetts governor leads by two points.
• Gingrich has released a second contract with the mortgage provider Freddie Mac. The contract specifically rules out lobbying services, but according to Politico Gingrich advised the company's chief lobbyist, Mitchell Delk, about "business and public policy issues." Romney's campaign insists Gingrich was in effect providing a lobbying service.
Analyists continue to pore over Mitt Romney's tax returns, released on Tuesday. The returns revealed the existence of a now-closed Swiss bank account, and there were questions about whether the effective 13.9% tax rate paid by the Romneys was in reality even lower.
• The Republican nomination candidates took a break from tearing strips out of each other to attack Barack Obama over the state of the union address. Newt Gingrich claimed it showed Obama wanted to increase taxes and expand government, while Romney did not even wait for the speech to launch his attack, saying the president's speech was designed to divide America.