Focus Already Turning to Florida

The polls don't close in South Carolina for hours, but already the GOP race is turning its attention toward Florida's primary on Jan. 31. Newt Gingrich today conducted what the Los Angeles Times called a "telephone town hall" with voters there and promised a fight. "We're going to be in Florida by Monday," he said. "We're looking forward to it. It's going to be a great campaign. We have to have people-power and idea-power to offset (Mitt) Romney's money power, so we need your help."

Romney, meanwhile, committed for the first time to debates in the state on Monday and Thursday, reports AP. Voting in the state actually has already begun, notes the Miami Herald. Today was the first day of early voting in south Florida, a process that ends on Jan. 28. What's more, about 138,000 Republicans in the state have filed absentee ballots so far, and that number alone exceeds the 122,000 ballots cast in Iowa. (More Florida primary stories.)