Gingrich tipped for Florida battering

The former speaker of the House of Representatives crushed Mr Romney last weekend in South Carolina but a key factor in the resurgence of Mr Romney, former Massachusetts governor, is money for television attack advertising.

Overall spending figures show Mr Romney and his supporters have outspent Mr Gingrich in the Florida campaign by at least five to one. That was reflected in the latest NBC/Marist poll showing Mr Romney backed by 42 per cent of likely Florida Republican primary voters and Mr Gingrich slipping to 27 per cent.

Mr Romney was spending $2.8m on television commercials in the final week of the Florida campaign. In addition, a group supporting him, Restore Our Future, was spending $4m more.

By contrast, Mr Gingrich was spending about $700,000, and Winning Our Future, a group backing him, an additional $1.5m. A major reason so much money has been flooding into the 2012 United States presidential race is a 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court.

In its decision two years ago, the court, which is divided between five conservative justices and four in the liberal camp, ruled that free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution prohibit the government from limiting corporate and labour union spending for political purposes.

The ruling reversed a lower court decision that prevented the non-profit corporation Citizens United from airing parts from a film critical of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign.

At issue was whether the group could advertise the film in broadcast advertising featuring Mrs Clinton’s image.

That was initially held to violate 2002 campaign finance reform legislation.

The ruling overturned a century-old restriction.