Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who acts as a campaign surrogate for Mitt Romney, has become a familiar face at Gingrich's campaign stops this week, along with Florida Rep. Connie Mack. Gingrich Press Secretary R.C. Hammond has not been afraid to engage both congressmen with questions about Romney's record.

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On Friday, reporters and television cameras flocked to Hammond when he made a beeline for Chaffetz at a Republican Jewish Coalition event. It was the second time in two days Hammond singled Chaffetz out.

Chaffetz dismissed Hammond's persistent inquiries about Romney voting in the 1992 Democratic presidential primary, saying he was there to answer questions from reporters.

"What are you trying to accomplish here? I'm happy to answer the questions from the accredited media," Chaffetz said.

The Romney backer said he came to the event to "offer perspective" to voters and members of the media. But when someone asked about "Obamacare" being linked too closely with the health care law implemented by Romney in Massachusetts, Chaffetz deferred to the candidate himself.

"I think he gave a great eloquent answer," Chaffetz responded, pointing to Romney's CNN debate performance. "He addressed it several times. I'll leave it in his own words."

Romney's robust presidential campaign will continue to dispatch high-profile surrogates to Gingrich events, Chaffetz said. If they win the nomination, they'll likely target President Barack Obama's campaign stops as well.

"If you think it's aggressive now, wait until he's the nominee and he's going up against Barack Obama. He's going to run a very proactive, aggressive campaign," Chaffetz said.

Gingrich has built up his Florida campaign operation in a matter of months, thanks to an injection of campaign donations and a decisive win in South Carolina. But it will be difficult for him to match Romney's fierce communications staff, the muscle behind the candidate's conference calls, opposition emails and surrogate outreach.

Chaffetz told reporters he thought Hammond's behavior was a "little immature" and "unprofessional."

Reporters asked the congressman whether it was appropriate to show up at Gingrich's campaign events. He said, "It's a perfectly acceptable thing to do."

"It is exactly what Newt Gingrich has said time and time again," said Chaffetz. "He would follow the president everywhere he went."

Chaffetz was referring to the former speaker's challenge to Obama, if he clinches the nomination, to hold several Lincoln-Douglas style debates. Gingrich has said if the president refuses, he'll travel four hours behind him to deliver a rebuttal speech. But he never said he would appear at Obama's speeches like Romney's campaign surrogates are doing.

Chaffetz used the encounter with the Gingrich spokesperson as an example of the former speaker and his campaign becoming "unhinged."

On Thursday, Gingrich was surprised to find out Romney was deploying staff to offer rebuttals to his speeches. A reporter asked him why he wasn't doing the same.

He quipped, "He doesn't say anything worth rebutting."

Follow Shawna Shepherd on Twitter: @ShepherdCNN.

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Jeb bush offers no endorsement, but a warning

In a post on her Facebook page Friday, the former Alaska governor praised Gingrich's Ronald Reagan connections, while questioning Romney's conservative credentials. Ultimately, Palin said the GOP establishment backing Romney were "cannibals" for attempting to discredit Gingrich.

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"I am in favor of contested primaries and healthy, pointed debate," Palin wrote. "They help focus candidates and the electorate. I have fought in tough and heated contested primaries myself. But what we have seen in Florida this week is beyond the pale."

Palin, whose husband Todd endorsed Gingrich earlier this month, said tactics used against the former House speaker were reminiscent of attacks against her during her vice presidential bid in 2008.

"The difference in 2008 was that I was largely unknown to the American public, so they had no way of differentiating between the lies and the truth," Palin said. "All of it came at them at once as 'facts' about me. But Newt Gingrich is known to us – both the good and the bad."

Gingrich's relationship with Nancy Reagan, along with an endorsement from Reagan's son Michael, should speak to the former speaker's record as a conservative, Palin argued.

"There are no two greater keepers of the Reagan legacy than Nancy and Michael Reagan," Palin wrote. "What we saw with this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt was nothing short of Stalin-esque re-writing of history."

Borrowing one of Gingrich's favorite campaign lines, Palin said the mainstream pillorying of Gingrich was "Alinsky tactics at their worst," referencing the radical community organizer Saul Alinsky, who Gingrich namedrops frequently on the stump

Palin boiled down the race to a tug-of-war between mainstream Republicans backing Romney, and grassroots activists unwilling to fall in line behind the establishment pick.

"I respect Governor Romney and his success," Palin wrote. "But there are serious concerns about his record and whether as a politician he consistently applied conservative principles and how this impacts the agenda moving forward. The questions need answers now. That is why this primary should not be rushed to an end. We need to vet this."

Palin ended months of speculation in October when she announced she wasn't seeking the GOP presidential nomination. Political observers have been looking for an endorsement from the former governor ever since, but have thus far been left hanging.

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"She's made that story up," Paul said on CNN's "John King USA."

"She also said that I was in and out of the office every single day. The office wasn't even in the town that I live so that's completely false reporting. And they should have verified that. Because I think somebody from my staff answered it but that's completely false."

"He called and asked to meet," Paul told CNN when asked how the meeting with LePage came about.

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Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton said the meeting went well. It's unclear what the two men discussed.

LePage won office in November 2010 with significant tea party support. Shortly after, in January, the blunt-speaking governor sparked controversy after saying that an NAACP chapter could "kiss my butt." The governor later explained: "They are a special interest. End of story...and I'm not going to be held hostage by special interests. And if they want, they can look at my family picture. My son happens to be black, so they can do whatever they'd like about it."

The meeting with Paul, himself popular with many tea partiers, fell in the middle of a Friday schedule book-ended by a morning event in Bangor and an evening town hall in Lewiston about 100 miles away. The congressman also attended an afternoon event at Colby College in Waterville.

On Saturday, Paul is scheduled for three events in the state.

–Follow Shannon Travis on Twitter: @ShanTravisCNN

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The Democratic Missouri congressman was riding in the passenger side of a car when he noticed a hand waving above the weeds in a ditch off the side of the road. Cleaver alerted his staff member to stop and they both jumped out of the vehicle to discover a woman in distress who was going in and out of consciousness

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Cleaver and an associate both called 911 and waited with the woman until paramedics arrived on the scene.

"The heroes are the First Responders who rushed to save her," he said. "I just hope she is okay."

The office is unaware of the woman's ailment or current condition, according to Rooney.

"I am so thankful I was in the right place at the right time and could help," Cleaver said.

-CNN's Kate Bolduan contributed to this report.

(CNN) – Newt Gingrich got a lot of mileage out of his comments on building a moon colony by 2020. Whether you think that should get him a one-way ticket to the moon on the first flight or you believe his vision is an inspiration, he did accomplish one big thing.

Gingrich got the conversation started. What kind of space program do we want? What kind can we afford? Had Gingrich not said what he said, the space program might have been totally ignored, as it has been so often in the past.

Coming off a performance in a CNN/Republican Party of Florida debate Thursday in which Romney seemed to put his chief rival Newt Gingrich on the defensive, the former Massachusetts governor rallied an enthusiastic audience at Astrotech Corporation, a commercial aerospace supplier.

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"How about that debate last night, wasn't that fun?" Romney asked as audience members cheered. "I've had the fun of having two debates where I had to stand up and battle. And battling was fun and battling was won."

Later in the event, Romney criticized the president's State of the Union address, saying Obama had failed to deliver on his promises.

"I was listening pretty carefully to his speech because I'm expecting to debate him someday," Romney said, prompting more cheers from the audience.

Though earlier the week Romney attacked Gingrich at a series of campaign events following the former House speaker's stunning victory in South Carolina, for the past several days on the stump Romney has focused his criticism on Obama.

Polls show he is at the top of the field in Florida, where GOP voters will weigh in Tuesday.

Romney did make a veiled jab at Gingrich over funding for space exploration. On Wednesday Gingrich vowed to build a base on the moon by the end of his second term in office.

Romney implied the proposal was a pander to Florida's Space Coast community.

"In the politics of the past, to get your vote in the, on the Space Coast, I'd come here and promise hundreds of billions of dollars," Romney said. "I'm not going to do that. I know that stuff is very attractive, very popular, but it's simply the wrong thing to do. It's not the way the best decisions are made."

He added: "Politicians love the idea of coming in and saying what they're going to do without having studied it, without having carried out the analysis, and gotten the data, done the hard work. I won't do that."

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Biden, who has largely refrained from commenting on the race, specifically targeted the two candidates while speaking at a Democratic retreat in Maryland.

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Arguing that while House Republicans are merely "obstructing the president's agenda," the GOP candidates genuinely "believe what they are saying" on the campaign trail.

"I think it is not just political theater but a tactic I really think they believe in," Biden said. "I think they are committed to it."

He made references to controversial positions taken by each candidate, including Romney's opposition to the auto bailouts in which the former Massachusetts governor penned a 2008 column titled "Let Detroit go bankrupt."

Biden also cited Gingrich's popular attack line that President Barack Obama is the "food stamp president," as well as the former House speaker's argument that children in urban areas have poor work ethics.

"I don't want to get going on these guys because it is not appropriate," Biden said. "I think it ends on January 20th of next year–Barack and I once again standing up with a majority in the Congress being sworn in as president and vice president."

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Both sides in the political and legal dispute have been meeting privately in recent days, hoping to end a months-long standoff over the extent of voter representation for the state's growing Hispanic and minority population. Federal courts in Texas and Washington, DC have been involved in trying to carve an acceptable map in time for the state's April 3 voting primary. A special federal judicial panel was holding a key hearing Friday in San Antonio.

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At issue are competing maps for the Texas state legislative and congressional districts - created first by Republican lawmakers that favored their political base, and later by a federal court to give minorities greater voting power.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week tossed out the judicially-created map, and the justices ordered the federal panel to try again.

Leaders of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, the key plaintiffs in the legal challenge, said a settlement with the state Attorney General's Office may be imminent.

"Since the early days of the legislative session, the Mexican American Legislative Caucus had been asking for Republican law-makers to negotiate fair maps that reflect the growing diversity of the State of Texas. I am encouraged by the Attorney General's efforts to now strive towards that goal," said Democratic state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, chairman of MALC. "Any hope to arrive at a consensus will require that proposed compromise maps reflect the diversity of Texas and ensure that 3.7 million minority Texans are not be swept under the rug for the sake of partisan politics."

The office of Attorney General Greg Abbott had no comment on the negotiations.

The initial court-drawn map was imposed after Democrats and minority groups in Texas challenged the original plan approved by the GOP-led state legislature.

The political stakes are huge: Texas gains four new congressional seats based on the newly completed census, and this ruling could help determine whether Democrats can wrest control of the House of Representatives from the Republicans.

The legal stakes are just as important - creating standards courts must use when evaluating voting boundaries. This is the latest election-related dispute for the Supreme Court this year. Continuing, separate challenges to campaign spending laws and state voter identification laws will soon be presented to the court.

The high court's ruling sent the issue back to the Texas-based federal court to resolve. All sides– including the justices - had earlier expressed concern whether a final resolution from three federal courts now considering the Texas maps –including the Supreme Court– would come in time before the November elections.

With no clear map currently to rely on, Texas voting districts and candidacies remain in political limbo. This latest high court ruling will compress the time office-seekers can eventually file and run for congressional and legislative seats. The state's primary election is set for March, but could be rescheduled for as late as June.
Abbott had filed an emergency appeal in November, saying the map approved by the federal panel in San Antonio was an unconstitutional intrusion into the legislative process and was "fatally flawed."

The current court-ordered maps would increase the number of districts dominated by minorities, especially Hispanic voters. Texas is among several mostly Southern states that are required under the landmark Voting Rights Act to have any changes to voting laws or rules approved by the U.S. Justice Department.

In a separate appeal two years ago, conservatives on the high court seemed to believe that key enforcement section of the law –known as Section 5– was unconstitutional. It was unclear whether the court now has the majority to strike down the provision, which would free Texas and other states from federal oversight.

Another sticking point is that a separate federal court in Washington is deciding whether to approve- or "preclear"- the original plan approved by the legislature, a requirement under the Section 5 provision of the Voting Rights Act. A bench trial in that case began last week, with a ruling expected early next month.

That has left three federal courts involved in the voting map dispute.

Texas is getting four new congressional seats –more than any other state– after the latest census showed its population grew by 4 million people. The plan drafted by the Texas three-judge panel would give minorities the majority in three of those congressional districts, and could give Democrats more seats statewide. With 36 congressional seats, the fate of Texas could have national implications in the fight over control of the House.

"Ninety percent of the growth in this state in the last decade was minority growth," said Martinez Fischer, a Democratic state representative. "Sixty-five percent of that alone, Latino. So you would expect these new congressional districts would reflect the minority populations that created the opportunity."

The Hispanic-led coalition said the GOP-drawn map would mean zero net seats for minority voters in both congressional and legislative seats.

Under state rules, redistricting plans approved by the legislature can be challenged in court, with judges having the power to craft alternate maps.

Republicans in the state have a super-majority in the legislature, meaning they needed no Democratic support to pass their plan. A similar party split a decade ago led Democratic lawmakers to flee to neighboring Oklahoma in an effort to kill the 2000 redistricting bill.

The state's Republican governor, former presidential candidate Rick Perry, supported the map passed by the legislature, but has not signed it into law while the plan is challenged in court.

All states are required to redo their voting boundaries following the recently completed nationwide census, conducted once every 10 years.

"There hasn't even been a discussion, not even approaching a discussion to discuss a discussion, as to whether to get out of this race," Santorum said on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." "We're in this race."

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The former Pennsylvania senator said his team had begun hiring staff in states that hold contests in March and April, though he did not name the states.

Santorum will return to Pennsylvania for fundraising events Friday and Saturday but said he'll be back on the trail in the Sunshine State by Saturday night.

Saying his campaign had just gotten its "sea legs" in terms of financial support in the last few weeks, the candidate stated his team has raised twice as much money since the beginning of the year as he did in the previous nine months.

"I believe we're going to win this," Santorum said. "It's going to be an opportunity for us to be able to rise and be the conservative that folks have been looking for in this race."

A new Quinnipiac survey released Friday showed Santorum in a close race with Texas Rep. Ron Paul for third place in Florida. The poll showed 12% of likely primary voters were backing Santorum, while 14% were supporting Paul.

The candidate directly attacked the two Republican frontrunners in the race during the CNN/Florida Republican Debate Thursday night, causing some political observers to question whether Santorum was dampening his potential for a possible running mate pick or cabinet position.

But the candidate said he's only interested in one job.

"I have no desire to be anything in anyone's cabinet or anything else," Santorum said. "I'm not making this sacrifice…to do anything but be the President of the United States."

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Jeb bush offers no endorsement, but a warning

Puerto Rico's top official will campaign with Romney at an event Friday evening in Orlando.

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Earlier in the day, Romney said he would support a move by Puerto Rico towards statehood, and referenced Fortuno's "passionate" support for that process.

"I expect the people of Puerto Rico will decide, like he feels, to become a state," Romney told a cheering audience at the Hispanic Leadership Network conference. "I can tell you that I will work with him that if that vote comes out in favor of statehood we will go through the process in Washington to provide statehood to Puerto Rico."

Puerto Rican voters will weigh in on a referendum regarding possible statehood in November.

In a statement, Fortuno, who has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate, said Romney had shown his private sector record "can be applied to all challenges."

"Mitt Romney is the one candidate who has the record, leadership, experience, and pro-growth plan to continue the course of private-sector job creation we've begun in Puerto Rico and provide economic stability for generations," Fortuno said in a statement.

Puerto Rico's Republican caucuses will be held March 18, when 23 delegates are at stake. However, Puerto Rico is not allocated any electoral votes in November's election.

The announcement would clearly be a disappointment to some - at Thursday's CNN Florida Republican Presidential Debate, another candidate, Rick Santorum, cited his friendship with Fortuno.

"I will give a shout-out to Governor Luis Fortuno, who is a good friend of mine," Santorum said. "I know him and his family, we have known each other for many years, we actually used to go to church together."

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In the ad, "What kind of man?", the campaign paints the former Massachusetts governor as an untrustworthy, flip-flopping politician, just four days before the Sunshine State's critical primary.

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The spot starts with a clip from a Mike Huckabee attack ad against Romney in 2007, in which the former Arkansas governor said about his opponent, "If a man's dishonest to get a job, he'll be dishonest on the job."

In a statement shortly after the ad emerged, Huckabee objected to the use of his old campaign ad for Gingrich's purposes.

"Any use of an out of context quote from the Republican Presidential primary 4 years ago in a political ad to advocate for the election or defeat of another candidate is not authorized, approved, or known in advance by me," Huckabee said, adding that he will not make an endorsement in the Republican primary.

This was the second time in less than two weeks that Huckabee has come out against the use of his words in a campaign ad. On January 16, the former governor released a similar statement against a Romney ad that included audio of Huckabee defending the candidate's corporate career.

Despite Huckabee's protestations, Gingrich's press secretary R.C. Hammond stood by the new ad, noting it was not implying an endorsement.

In the Gingrich ad against Romney, the ad focused on the "dishonesty" theme.

"What kind of man would mislead, distort, and deceive just to win an election?" the narrator says. "This man would be Mitt Romney."

The ad also goes after Romney's voting record. While the former Massachusetts governor said at the debate Thursday he had only voted for Democrats if there were no Republicans on the ballot, the commercial points to the 1992 presidential primary, in which Romney voted for Democrat Paul Tsongas. Republicans George H. W. Bush and Pat Buchanan also appeared on the Massachusetts ballot.

Romney previously defended his vote, saying in a 2007 ABC News interview that because "there was no real contest in the Republican primary," he voted in the Democratic primary for who he thought "would be the weakest opponent for a Republican."

The new 60-second spot also highlights a moment in Thursday's CNN/Republican Party of Florida Debate when Romney denied that he knew about a misleading ad against Gingrich put out by his campaign.

The Spanish-language radio ad in question accused Gingrich of calling Spanish "the language of the ghetto." Gingrich's comment came in a 2007 speech on bilingual education, and while he never mentioned the word Spanish, he came under fire at the time for presumably referring to the language.

Days later, Gingrich puts out a web video in Spanish saying his previous words "were not the best."

But Team Gingrich wasted no time in producing the new commercial Friday, attacking the former Massachusetts governor for not knowing about an ad coming from his own campaign.

"If we can't trust Romney in a debate, how can we trust him in the White House?" the narrator says at the end of the spot.

Romney's campaign responded to the new commercial, saying Gingrich is "desperate to distract from his record" and is trying to "prop up his sinking campaign."

"Newt Gingrich's desperate smears have already been called 'inflammatory' by Marco Rubio and 'ridiculous' by Jeb Bush. It is laughable to see lectures on honesty coming from a paid influence peddler who suffered an unprecedented ethics reprimand, was forced to pay a $300,000 penalty, and resigned in disgrace at the hands of his own party," Andrea Saul, Romney spokesperson, said in a statement.

– CNN Political Producer Shawna Shepherd contributed to this report.

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Romney campaign will amend disclosure forms

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In an open letter, the leaders said Romney was the candidate best positioned to reignite a program they said had languished under President Barack Obama.

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"Restoring the U.S. space program to greatness will require the leadership, management skill, and commitment to American exceptionalism possessed by only one candidate in this race: Mitt Romney," the group wrote in their letter.

In 2010, Obama announced he would cut NASA's lunar program from the federal budget, and focus more on exploration of deeper space. The space shuttle program officially ended in July 2011 with the launch of the shuttle Atlantis. Obama has advocated more private spacecraft for missions closer to Earth.

In their letter, Romney's space supporters described Obama's management of NASA as lacking "purpose or vision or mission."

"This failure of leadership has thrust the space program into disarray and triggered a dangerous erosion of our technical workforce and capabilities," the space leaders wrote. "In short, we have a space program unworthy of a great nation."

The letter also made a point of portraying Romney as realistic about America's space program, a point Romney himself made at Thursday's CNN Florida Republican Presidential Debate.

At the debate, Romney slammed rival Newt Gingrich for proposing expensive space plans in Florida, saying the former House speaker was pandering to the crowd with a vested interest in space investments.

"This idea of going state to state and promising what people want to hear, promising billions, hundreds of billions of dollars to make people happy, that's what got us into the trouble we're in now," Romney said.

The executives backing Romney are Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, USSpace Chairman Mark Albrecht, Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson, Apollo XVII Commander Gene Cernan, former shuttle pilot Bob Crippen, former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, former National Security Council Director of Space Policy Peter Marquez, and Tufts University Professor William Martel.

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Speaking to Democratic lawmakers at a retreat on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Obama said he would actively rebut that charge in the coming election year.

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"This is one of the biggest things I'm going to be pushing back on this year, this notion that this is somehow class warfare, that we're trying to stir up envy," Obama said. "Nobody envies rich people, everybody wants to be rich. Everybody aspires to be rich, and everybody understands you've got work hard to be successful. That's the American way."

Candidates seeking the 2012 GOP presidential nomination have accused Obama of pitting 'haves' against 'have nots,' saying his rhetoric and policies amount to redistribution of wealth.

In his victory speech the night of New Hampshire's primary, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Obama was a "leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy," suggesting his proposals boiled down to an indictment of free enterprise.

Fellow candidate Newt Gingrich has also made the argument Obama is engaging in class warfare, saying in December the president has a "European radical attitude toward class warfare."

In his speech Friday, Obama reiterated a core theme from this week's State of the Union address by calling for the end of tax cuts and loopholes benefiting the country's top earners. Obama assured lawmakers the plan would prove popular with voters.

"We're going to push hard for the Buffett rule," Obama said, making reference to a proposal named for billionaire Warren Buffett that would look to ensure a higher tax rate for the rich.

Obama continued, "We're going to push hard to make sure someone making over a million dollars a year aren't getting tax breaks and tax subsidies they don't need, not out of envy, but out of a sense of fairness and a sense of mutual responsibility and a sense of commitment for the country's future, and that's what we're fighting for. The American people understand that."

In a year when campaign trail arguments seem poised to eclipse meaningful legislation, Obama said Democrats must remain mindful of passing important measures.

"Even as we engage in a robust debate with the other side, I want us all to remember there are still folks out there counting on us and still people out there hurting," Obama said. "Whenever we have an opportunity, whenever there is the possibility that the other side is putting some politics aside for a nanosecond in order to get something done for the American people, we've got to be right there ready to meet them."

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The morning after a heated CNN/Florida Republican Party debate in Jacksonville, a pro-Gingrich super PAC hit the airwaves with a television ad essentially accusing Romney of committing Medicare fraud. One of Gingrich's top Florida backers, former state Attorney General Bill McCollum, also raised questions about Romney's past service on the board of Damon Corp., a Massachusetts medical testing company that pleaded guilty in 1996 to billing Medicare fraudulently and that paid a $119 million fine.

Huntsman, former Utah governor and U.S. Ambassador to China, will replace his father, Jon M. Huntsman, who will now serve as chairman emeritus of the foundation.

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Huntsman ended his presidential bid in South Carolina on January 16, following his third place finish in New Hampshire's primary.

– CNN Political Producer Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report.

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The estimates, even from the candidate and his own campaign, are all over the map.

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich both took in 32% of support among likely Republican primary voters, according to a new survey released Friday by the American Research Group.

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The poll was conducted Wednesday and Thursday, almost entirely before the CNN/Republican Party of Florida Debate in Jacksonville.

The two frontrunners dueled on stage Thursday night over a number of issues, including immigration, which is widely expected to be a focal point of the Arizona contest.

According to the ARG survey, 12% said they would back Texas Rep. Ron Paul, while 10% said they would support former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. Twelve percent said they were undecided.

Among those who identified themselves as tea party supporters, Gingrich held a 40%-23% advantage over Romney. Meanwhile, Romney led Gingrich among woman with a 34%-28% margin.

Arizona comes after primaries and caucuses in Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Maine and Missouri, but before March 6, also known as Super Tuesday, when 10 states are scheduled to hold contests.

The American Research Group conducted the survey and questioned 600 likely Republican primary voters in Arizona by telephone Jan 25-26, with a sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.

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"The GOP doesn't want to lose those wonderful voters that he's brought on board," Welch said on CNN's "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien." "So how well (Republicans) treat Ron Paul going forward is a very big deal, just the way you layoff employees is a very big deal."

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His interview follows comments from a column he penned for Reuters on Friday, in which he described Paul supporters as impassioned activists and anything but "party regulars."

The libertarian-leaning Texas congressman, who's making his third bid for president, is known for his young, vocal following.

In the first two nominating contests, Paul supporters turned out in droves to throw their weight behind the candidate, giving him a strong third place finish in Iowa with 21% of the vote and a second place finish in New Hampshire with 23%.

While he didn't fare as well in South Carolina and while he's placing little effort in the Florida primary, the congressman has shown no signs that he intends to drop out of the running, even suggesting he would stay in the race until the Republican convention in August.

But if and when that day comes, Welch, a strong backer of Mitt Romney, said Republicans need to be ready.

"There can be no brush-off. No 'Phew, he's gone. Now let's get down to business.' No booby prize. Ron Paul needs to be given a role that really means something to him - a role with influence and voice," Welch wrote in the column.

The former CEO suggested giving Paul whatever he wants, whether it's a prominent role at the convention or an advisory position in a new administration.

"Like a business leader designing a severance package with a key player, the GOP leadership's mindset must be: 'When he walks out that door, Ron Paul is going to be a friend for life'," he wrote.

Sitting by his side in the CNN interview on Friday, Suzy Welch added they know a thing or two about Paul supporters, as their four children are all fans of the congressman.

"If you let them go, they're not going to go into the booth and they're not going to pull the lever for whoever the nominee is," she said. "If you alienate them…either they'll stay home or they'll work against you."

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Romney campaign will amend disclosure forms

Jeb bush offers no endorsement, but a warning