Newt Gingrich courts senior voters of Florida's The Villages
By Jackie Kucinich, USA TODAY January 29, 2012
THE VILLAGES, Fla. – Fresh off the endorsement of former presidential contender Herman Cain in Palm Beach Saturday night, Newt Gingrich heads to central Florida this afternoon to court a crucial voting bloc: the seniors of The Villages.
But the journey through the desolate Florida countryside that leads to the pristine golf courses of The Villages is well-tread territory for the former speaker as well as his fellow GOP contenders.
The estimated 85,000 residents who inhabit the retirement oasis — recently named the No. 1 fastest growing small town by Forbes magazine — are a must-court for GOP presidential candidates, said several of the residents who attended a speech Friday by Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee for president who's now a leading surrogate for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
"We turn out to vote in the high 80s," said Don Hahnfeldt, the president of the Village Homeowners Association, who introduced McCain at the Friday event. "My observation is they believe it is vital."
A pilgrimage to The Villages has been a "rite of passage" for Republicans at the presidential and state level since the 1980s, said Rick Wilson, a Florida-based Republican strategist.
"In The Villages, you're talking about maybe 90,000 GOP voters with a turnout rate that is astoundingly high," he said. It's also "convenient to Orlando," Wilson said, "which is a bonus."
Julie Dillenburg, 70, a Pennsylvania transplant and former college professor who described herself as a "recovering Democrat," said candidates must come and "kiss the pope's ring" in The Villages.
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