'Rudy, you did it in New York,' Florida retiree cheers

Giuliani signed autographs after a speech before about 200 lsupporters in a chandeliered hotel hall. Photo by Mark Silva

by Mark Silva

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- "I don't want our heads down,'' Rudy Giuliani told his crowd here, with the former mayor of New York promising lower taxes and a revived economy, a bigger military and greater security for all. "I want our heads up.’’

“Rudy, you did it in New York,’’ a woman called out.

“I did that in New York,’’ he said.

"Yes you did,’’ she echoed.

That was Mary Colombo, a retiree who first started coming to Florida as a "snowbird'' in 1989 -- "always went back to vote for Rudy'' -- and settled here in 2000, in Wynmoor, a retirement community in Coconut Creek. She joined a couple hundred other mostly elderly people filling a small, stuffy and warm chandeliered room of a Boca Raton hotel where Giuliani staged an appearance and a press conference before tonight's debate.

And this is the part of Florida where Giuliani hopes to build a winning vote in the Republican primary on Tuesday. With his campaign targeting 23 counties throughout the state -- running a line from Southwest Florida and up the I-4 corridor to Jacksonville, the three big counties of Southeast Florida, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade are his anchor.

With voters like Colombo: "I am from New York originally, and what he did for New York, we got to ride the subways without getting robbed... You know what they call that? Fascist.''

This retired Republican lived for 45 years in Elmhurst, in Brooklyn, and she has not yet cast her vote in the early-voting or absentee balloting widely available here. She plans to spend election day turning out her neighbors to vote for Giuliani.

"I vote in Wynmoor because I push my neighbors to vote.’’