New York, NY —
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani maintains the top perch among his Republican rivals in the latest polls. This in spite of a major flip-flop on abortion and embarrassing disclosures regarding his current wife and personal life in the past few months. WNYC's Elaine Rivera explores why potential Republican voters are giving him a nod particularly in swing states.
REPORTER: It is clearly an enthusiastic Republican crowd gathered at a terrace room on a lush golf course in Wilmington, Delaware last week. They are there to see their guy: RUDY. In her introduction, Priscilla Rakestraw, the co-chair of Giuliani's Delaware campaign committee, says why a Republican like her wants to see him as President.
RAKESTRAW: In the darkest hours of 9/11 and the days that followed he gave us courage he gave us hope he showed our enemies that New York and America could and would stand tall against terrorism.
REPORTER: It is that Sept. 11reputation that the Giuliani camp is banking on to counter the candidate's controversial personal history and his liberal stances on issues such as abortion and gay rights.
REPORTER: In the latest Quinnipiac poll, Giuliani still leads against top Republican rivals John McCain and Mitt Romney - surprising both pollsters and pundits alike. In the past few months, Giuliani faced a number of glaring mishaps leading to speculation that his approval ratings would plummet.
REPORTER: One such instance was during the first Republican debate in May where Giuliani, always a staunch pro-choice politician, performed poorly when asked whether he would repeal Roe V. Wade, the law which legalized abortion:
MODERATOR: Mayor?
GIULIANI: It would be OK.
MODERATOR: OK to repeal?
GIULIANI: It would be OK to repeal. It would be also if a strict constructionist judge viewed it as precedent and I think a judge has to make that decision.
MODERATOR: Would it be OK if they didn't repeal it?
GIULIANI: I think the court has to make that decision and then the country can deal with it. We're a federalist system of government and states can make their own decisions.
REPORTER: Then there was the awkward performance of his third wife, Judith, at a major New York fundraiser in March. She introduced her husband and talked about the first time they met when she was a nurse whose expertise was infectious diseases.
JUDITH GIULIANI: And the first time that he and I sat down and talked I said to Rudy, what do you know about infectious diseases and he said, hmmmm. I don't know what can you tell me about politics.
REPORTER: What she failed to mention was that when they first met he was also still married to his second wife, Donna Hanover. A slew of headlines followed - the estrangement from his two children and Judith Giuliani's disclosure that she, too, was married three times - not twice as had been previously reported. There was also the couple's uncomfortable appearance on a Barbara Walters special. Rudy gushed about his wife and said she could sit on cabinet meetings if he were president. And he denied that she was the other woman who broke up his marriage.
BARBARA WALTERS: Mr. Mayor was Judith Nathan responsible for the break up of your marriage?
GIULIANI: No, she was not. I try to keep all of these things as private as possible but on that I think I should be very, very clear she was not responsible for the breakup at all.
REPORTER: Since then, Giuliani has regrouped. He had a strong showing in two subsequent debates. He shored up his abortion stance which he says while he personally abhors abortion he is unapologetic about being pro-choice - but he promises to appoint strict constructionist judges. And his wife has not been as visible on the campaign trail.
REPORTER: Maurice Carroll, director of the Qunnipiac University Polling Institute, says last's week poll showing Giuliani still leading the Republican pack is surprising.
CARROLL: If I just went with what I read in the national press it would be that his stance on the issues were murdering him but when Quinnipiac offered a series of possibilities his stand on the issues, 9/11, his personal life - personal life got almost nothing
REPORTER: Voters at the Delaware rally support Carroll's assertion. Joy Aloisi, wearing her Rudy button and a cap with the Italian flag colors, says his personal life is no one's business.
ALOISI: I don't think there is any of us that doesn't have something like that in our lives and I don't think that has anything to do with how you conduct running the country
REPORTER: Karen Colbourn, another Wilmington supporter, agrees.
COLBOURN: I don't think it's going to have any affect on his ability to govern. Look, we have someone who looks like they have the fairy tale family and marriage in the office now and it seems like we're in a hundred year war.
REPORTER: Here's Gene Katzen of Dover who came who came to see the candidate with his young son Jacob. He says he opposes Giuliani's pro-choice position but admires him for his leadership skills.
KATZEN: He knows what he's doing the way he handled New York, he's confidence when he did things, things worked - not just experience I would do, I would do and I want someone who knows what they're doing in there
REPORTER: It is voters like Katzen, Colbourn and Aloisi that the Giuliani operation hope to win over in key states particularly close swing states such as Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey that went Democratic in the last two elections. They're betting that controversial issues like abortion, gay marriage, and divorced candidates are overblown.
REPORTER: But there are other candidates banking on that as well. The Democrats. The Quinnipiac poll shows that all of the top Democratic presidential candidates have caught up with Giuliani. For WNYC, I'm Elaine Rivera