MANCHESTER, N.H., Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu said Sunday he expects the race for the Republican presidential nomination will continue well past the Florida primary.
Sununu is certain GOP candidate Mitt Romney is going to do well in primaries across the country, he said in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union."
"Mitt Romney's going a step at a time, recognizing it's going to be a long slog, although, of course, New Hampshire is the most important step in that long slog."
Bob Walker, a former U.S. congressman advising Newt Gingrich's campaign agreed, saying he thinks the race is too close for it to end soon.
"I'm not certain that it isn't going to go a good ways past Florida, because I think that there is an opportunity in both South Carolina and Florida to have fairly close races in both of those places, which carries the campaign forward for some time," he said.
Sununu went on to accuse Romney's competitors of spinning the rhetoric about their Iowa caucus losses.
"Whenever you're losing badly, you move from saying 'I'm trying to win' to lowering expectations," he said. "And what you're getting is the spin of the losers trying to salvage something out of the New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary."
Walker acknowledged there are high expectations for Romney to win the New Hampshire primary, saying there "are a lot of people vying for the number two and three slots."
