Mitt Romney faces long battle as he agrees to release tax returns
Mitt Romney has said he would publish his 2010 return and a 2011 estimate on Tuesday. Photo: Getty Images
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Mitt Romney caved in to demands for the release of his tax returns yesterday as he scrambled to recover from a thrashing by Newt Gingrich in the South Carolina presidential primary.
Mr Romney turned a 10 percentage point poll lead last Monday into a 12-point defeat in the first southern primary, after failing to fend off attacks over his lucrative career as a corporate buy-out boss.
He said that he would publish his 2010 return and a 2011 estimate on Tuesday, a week before the next Republican contest in Florida.
It was a humbling reversal for the former Massachusetts governor, who repeatedly said he would not make the figures public until April, when he expected to have wrapped up the nomination.
"We just made a mistake in holding off as long as we did," he said in a television interview.
Mr Romney, who has a $250 million (€193m) fortune and exploits a controversial loophole to pay lower income tax than most Americans, has suffered from Mr Gingrich's allegations that he "looted" companies and "manipulated the lives of thousands" as head of Bain Capital in the 1980s.
Having had his Iowa caucus win overturned on recount, Mr Romney has gone within days from being poised to clinch a historic third victory to having only the primary in New Hampshire – his neighbouring state, which he was always expected to win – to his name.
After mounting one of the most remarkable comebacks in US presidential election history, Mr Gingrich, who won 41 per cent of the vote in South Carolina, on Sunday set the stage for a vicious, protracted contest between a "Reagan populist conservative" and an "establishment candidate" favoured by the "elites of Washington and New York".
"I think Floridians would like somebody who speaks for them to Washington, not somebody who speaks for the establishment to them," Mr Gingrich told a television interview.
Republican strategists fear that he may now inflict damage on Mr Romney that could be fatal in a general election.
Supporters of Mr Gingrich, 68, were quick to point out that the winner of South Carolina's Republican presidential primary has gone on to win the party's nomination in every election since 1980.
However the result means that for the first time, three different Republican presidential hopefuls have won Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. It reflects a divided party that Mr Romney is struggling to unite behind him.
Mr Romney holds an 11-point lead in Florida opinion polls, according to an average by RealClearPolitics. His vastly superior finances – having raised $56.6 million in 2011 compared to Mr Gingrich's $11.9 million – will allow him to launch an overwhelming media campaign. He is also on the Republican ballot in every state, while Mr Gingrich did not qualify in Virginia.
A political action group backing Mr Romney has already begun spending millions of dollars reminding voters in Florida – the so-called "ground zero" of the US housing meltdown – that Mr Gingrich was paid $1.6 million (€1.23 million) consulting for Freddie Mac, the government-backed lender at the centre of the mortgage crisis.
Mr Romney showed he had abandoned a policy of remaining above the party fray by attacking Mr Gingrich in his concession speech for using the "weapons of the Left".
He said: "If Republican leaders want to join this president in demonising success and disparaging conservative values, then they're not going to be fit to be our nominee."
High-profile Romney backers are also expected to risk drawing further attention to Mr Gingrich's troubled personal life. Mr Gingrich's South Carolina win came after a strident debate performance last Thursday, when he received a standing ovation for dismissing claims from his ex-wife Marianne that he requested an "open marriage" in 1999 as "despicable".
He will now move to lure supporters of Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who finished third, and Ron Paul, the Texas congressman, who finished fourth. Both have vowed to fight on, making it harder for Mr Gingrich to close Mr Romney's lead.
In another setback to Mr Gingrich, more than 200,000 Floridians – about 10 per cent of expected turnout – have already voted via early or absentee ballots. He won in South Carolina by securing the support of 44 per cent of the more than half South Carolina voters who made their choice in the last few days of campaigning – almost twice as many as Mr Romney.
However, he also appeared to have defeated Mr Romney's claim to be uniquely "electable" in a year when determination to oust Mr Obama is the top priority for many Republicans. Mr Gingrich won 49 per cent of such voters in South Carolina, while 41 per cent backed Mr Romney.
The former Massachusetts governor's Mormon faith also harmed his result in a state where 65 per cent of voters told exit pollsters they were evangelical or born-again Christians. He won 19 per cent of voters who said candidates' religious beliefs mattered, 46 per cent of whom backed Mr Gingrich.
Unhelpfully, Mr Romney, who has struggled to convince struggling Americans that he knows their pain, also won only one income bracket – those earning more than $200,000 (€154,000) a year. Mr Gingrich, who won 43 of the state's 46 counties, led in every other wage category.
The scale of his victory means that Mr Gingrich was awarded 23 of South Carolina's 25 delegates in the party's national electoral college. Mr Romney received the other two.
- Jon Swaine
© Telegraph.co.uk
