Romney trounces field in last debate before primary Florida Republican debate: Romney trumps Gingrich. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney trounced rival Newt Gingrich in Thursday night's televised debate, revealing a pugnacious side to his character rarely seen in the campaign so far and giving him an edge going into Florida's primary on Tuesday. Exchanges between Romney and Gingrich, in a dead-heat in the polls in Florida, dominated the debate in Jacksonville, Florida, the 19th in the series and the final face-off before the primary. Gingrich needed a strong performance after seeing the momentum from his South Carolina win begin to slow but misfired all night. It was Romney, who dominated the night, trading retorts with Gingrich, particularly over illegal immigration. Gingrich, who has the reputation as the better debater, was frequently left looking bewildered at the emergence of a new-look Romney, confident and feisty. The debate sets the scene for a weekend of intensive politicking, with Gingrich and Romney scrapping up and down Florida, accompanied by millions of dollars in negative ads. The two are front-runners in the Republican race to take on Barack Obama for the White House in November. The most memorable exchanges of the night came when Gingrich clashed with Romney over illegal immigration, an emotive issue in Florida, which has the third largest Latino population in America. The exchanges revolved round an ad Gingrich put out describing Romney as 'anti-immigrant'. Gingrich withdrew the ad on Wednesday after leading Latino Republican politicians described it as offensive, but in the debate he stood by it. Romney called on him to apologise, describing the ad as "inexcusable and inflammatory and inappropriate" and "repulsive," unusual language for the normally buttoned-up candidate. He said it was "simply the kind of over-the-top rhetoric that has characterised American politics for too long." Gingrich, who has proposed a humane approach to illegal immigrants, stood his ground, insisting Romney was the most anti-immigrant of the four candidates fighting for the Republican nomination. He cited Romney's proposal for 'self-deportation' by illegal immigrants, saying it was impractical to suggest grandmothers who had emigrated to the US illegally be forced to leave, breaking from their families. Romney retorted: "You know, our problem is not 11 million grandmothers. Our problem is 11 million people getting jobs that many Americans, legal immigrants, would like to have. The two also clashed over the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, blamed by the right for the housing market collapse. Romney has made a central part of his campaign that Gingrich worked for them, earning $1.6 million. Gingrich countered that Romney had invested in them. All this was routine, but Romney added an unexpected counter-punch, saying Gingrich should look at his own investments and he would find he had also invested in them. Gingrich looked on bemused. The debate was more important than most. If Gingrich wins Florida, he has to be regarded as a serious contender for the Republican nomination. If Romney wins, he resumes the mantle of favourite. A CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday puts Romney ahead of Gingrich by only 2%. A good debate peformance by Romney was important because many Republican voters cite Gingrich's previous punchy displays as their reason for voting for him, relishing the prospect of him up against Barack Obama. Romney appointed a new debate coach, Brett O'Donnell, after the Iowa caucuses three weeks ago. But Romney's team, speaking in the spin room afterwards, denied this had made the difference. Romney's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, said: "The race has become tighter, the contrasts sharper, more focused, the temperature has gone up as we get closer to Tuesday. That might account for the aggressiveness we saw. With Gingrich subdued, it was left to Rick Santorum, the winner of the Iowa caucuses, to take the fight to Romney. Santorum pressed Romney hard on the health reform he introduced as governor of Massachusetts, saying it was indistinguishable from Obama's. Romney suggested he calm down. The fourth candidate, Ron Paul, who has not been campaigning much in Florida, did little to win over Cuban-Americans, who make up a big part of the Republican vote, by suggesting ending the US embargo. Fehrnstrom did not give O'Donnell much credit for the performance. Most of the early prepping happens before the first couple of debates and then afterwards it's just tune up. So we tune up and the way we tune up is sit around a conference table. There is a group of senior advisors who talk with the governor about the headlines and things that might come up in the debate," he said. And the "tune-up" did not involve mock debates, Fehrnstrom added. We don't do mock debates where we have fill-ins for the other candidates. It is very informal and casual.