GOP candidates to debate in Fla. tonight

US presidential hopeful John McCain greets people during a campaign visit to Miami. Republicans were campaigning full-bore in Florida, which on January 29 will stage a four-way fight between new front-runner McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani

(AFP/Getty Images/Joe Raedle)

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

BOCA RATON, Fla. - For Republican presidential contenders John McCain and Mitt Romney, Thursday's debate presented a chance to step out smartly in the struggle for victory in next week's Florida primary.

For Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee, it represented perhaps a last, best hope to shake up a statewide — and national — campaign that appears to be slowly leaving them behind.

Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian-leaning Texan with a vocal following, also had a spot on the stage for the prime-time debate, broadcast on MSNBC, five days before the primary.

The Florida primary offers 57 Republican National Convention delegates to the winner. It is the first big state to vote in the nominating campaign, the first winner-take-all contest in terms of delegates, and the final election before a virtual national primary on Feb. 5.

The five contenders shared a stage as polls suggested Romney and McCain were co-frontrunners in the state. Both the former Massachusetts governor and the Arizona senator are campaigning aggressively and have sparred periodically over the economy and tax cuts.

Giuliani and Huckabee were well behind in the same surveys, and struggling.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, has little money and has campaigned sporadically so far. He has not yet begun to advertise on television in the state.

Giuliani, the former New York mayor broke off campaigning earlier this week to fly to his homestate briefly for fundraising. After abandoning a string of earlier states, he has spent two weeks campaigning in Florida, a state that amounts to a virtual must-win territory for him.