Heidi Przybyla

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Rudy Giuliani shot to the front of the Republican presidential field by touting his anti-terrorism and leadership credentials. Now he's adding an economic message to the mix.

Giuliani, 63, is spending much of his time on the stump these days declaring that he best embodies his party's principles of free markets, low taxes and limited spending. ``As a fiscal conservative, I have by far the strongest record of anybody running on either side,'' he told reporters in Novi, Michigan, last week.

The former New York mayor's support for gay and abortion rights poses an obstacle to the Republican nomination, so he needs to stress issues more popular with the party rank and file as a counterweight, said Frank Donatelli, who served in President Ronald Reagan's White House as political affairs director.

``He's looking to broaden his portfolio,'' Donatelli said. While Giuliani has established ``very strong'' anti-terrorism credentials, ``you can't talk about that all the time,'' Donatelli said. As a result, ``he needs to stake out a strong position'' on economic and fiscal matters.

Critics, though, point out that he diverged from the conservative mainstream by opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, and Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes's flat-tax plan in 1996.

Mayor Giuliani handed over a larger deficit to Mayor Bloomberg than he inherited,'' Glenn Hubbard, an economic adviser to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, said in an interview last week.

The former New York mayor's support for gay and abortion rights poses an obstacle to the Republican nomination