Rudy Giuliani 2008 presidential campaign in the state) for third place, well behind front-runners McCain and Romney. By a January 24, 2008 poll, Giuliani was in third place in Florida with 20% of the vote, compared to 23% for John McCain and 27% for Mitt Romney. Another blow to Giuliani was the late endorsements for McCain of Florida Senator and former Chairman of the Republican National Committee Mel Martinez on January 25 and the highly popular Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, on January 26. Crist had planned to endorse Giuliani in the early autumn, and had still been expected to do so in early January.
Rudy Giuliani not filed a tax return for many years and of several other ethical missteps, in particular a stock transfer to his son. Dinkins filed several years of returns and said the tax matter had been fully paid off, denied other wrongdoing, and said that "what we need is a mayor, not a prosecutor", and that Giuliani refused to say "the R-word—he doesn't like to admit he's a Republican." Dinkins won the endorsements of three of the four daily New York newspapers, while Giuliani won approval from the "New York Post". In the end, Giuliani lost to Dinkins by a margin