The four leading Republican presidential candidates gathered in Florida Monday night for a debate ahead of the state’s primary one week from today. With the race now seen as wide open in the wake of Newt Gingrich’s victory in South Carolina, Mitt Romney sharpened his attacks against Gingrich as an “influence peddler in Washington,” a claim Gingrich denied.

Mitt Romney: “In the 1990s, he had to resign in disgrace from this job as speaker. I had the opportunity to go off and run the Olympic Winter Games. In the 15 years after he left the speakership, the Speaker has worked—been working as an influence peddler in Washington.”

Newt Gingrich: “There’s a point in this process where it gets unnecessarily personal and nasty, and that’s sad. The fact is, I’ve had a very long career of trying to represent the people of Georgia and, as speaker, the people of the United States. I think it’s pretty clear to say that I have never, ever gone and done any lobbying.”