Romney to participate in Monday’s debate in Florida

Mitt Romney will join his three remaining GOP rivals in a televised debate from Tampa, Fla., on Monday night, the sponsoring network, NBC, announced Saturday.

The announcement about the front-runner’s participation ends growing uncertainty about Romney’s participation, which was quickly becoming an issue in Florida, the next primary state. His campaign had refused to say whether or not he would appear.

A front-page story in Saturday’s Tampa Bay Times questioned whether Romney would show for debate after all. The article echoed the persistent hints from the Romney camp that their man might not want to be in both Florida debates this week (a second encounter, sponsored by the state Republican Party, is set for Thursday in Jacksonville).

Romney’s less-than-stellar performance in recent debates and a desire to limit further, unforced errors are obvious reasons that his chief strategist, Stuart Stevens, had talked up the idea of skipping some future debates. He elaborated on it during conversations with reporters in the spin room after Thursday night’s debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., which helped generate the latest round of speculation.

But on Saturday morning, Stevens told reporters in Greenville, S.C., that Romney plans to participate in both the Tampa and Jacksonville debates, reports the Los Angeles Times’ Michael Finnegan.

Given the tightening GOP race, the former Massachusetts governor really had no choice. Chickening out would have only made matters worse, by raising questions about his capacity to endure the heat of a tough campaign.

As Newt Gingrich pointed out in South Carolina on Friday, “Romney can’t claim that he’s prepared to debate Obama if he’s not prepared to debate Newt Gingrich.”

Romney’s decision is good news for Gingrich. The upcoming debates are probably the former House speaker’s best chance to engineer an upset in Florida, where Romney has a big lead in the polls and a lopsided financial edge in a money-driven primary state.

Throughout the GOP campaign, Gingrich has shone in debates, which have done more than anything else in this campaign to sway voter opinion, both nationally and in early-voting states. Romney, after starting out strongly in early debates, has been, at best, uneven in the most recent forums, under pressure from his rivals and, in some case, debate panelists.

paul.west@latimes.com