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A group of conservative leaders pledged to raise a combined $1.78 million for Rick Santorum's campaign and SuperPAC after meeting privately in Texas this weekend with the Republican presidential hopeful, POLITICO has learned. More than 200 conservatives from all over the country convened at the Houston Omni for a Friday fundraising reception for Santorum's campaign. They then met to plot strategy with the former senator Saturday morning, discussing how to overcome Mitt Romney's growing advantage in the GOP primary and fend off Newt Gingrich. "The message was, 'we're all in,'" said South Dakota businessman and conservative organizer Bob Fischer, one...

One of the reasons to be skeptical that Rick Santorum could win the Republican nomination is that we now have a pretty good idea of how the vote will play out from state to state — and the coalition that he is building seems short of a majority. It is not that Mr. Santorum’s delegate deficit is mathematically insurmountable. But he’s behind, and he is very unlikely to win states like New Jersey and California that either have a lot of delegates or use winner-take-all rules to award them. That might not leave enough fertile opportunities for him to gain...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — For weeks, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have been echoes of each other, both aiming their urgent verbal fire at Mitt Romney, the man they are desperate to stop from becoming the leader of the Republican Party. But the political and geographical imperatives of two important Southern primaries next week are forcing the two men to turn on each other as they seek to demonstrate an ability to unite the party’s fickle conservative base. It is a clash that has been building for weeks as both men circled each other warily, mindful that a shot at the...

Gingrich must steps aside. His “southern strategy” is up in flames placing distant third and fourth in key states. Working Women. This is a key demographic that Romney leads Santorum followed by a deficit of 11 points, and Gingrich is well way behind by 31 points and is one major reason why Gingrich can neither win the nomination nor the presidency. Gingrich was the big spoiler in MI where Santorum lost by just three points. Besides the notion of “permanent moon-based colonies” and pie-in-the-sky $2.50 gas/gallon regardless of world energy markets or geopolitical conditions is simply risible and won’t play...

Santorum wins TN.

Rick Santorum indicated that Newt Gingrich should drop out of the presidential race, arguing -- as Gingrich did during his surge -- that splitting the "anti-Romney" vote helped Mitt Romney win the Michigan primary and Washington caucuses and contributes to his overall success so far. "It's always harder when you've got to conservative running in the race as we have seen in Washington and we've seen in other states," Santorum said on Fox News Sunday. "We have the anti-Romney vote, if you will. Both Gingrich and I are slugging away." Santorum stopped short of calling for Gingrich to exit the...

Not so fast. When it comes to delegates, it turns out Mitt Romney did not win Michigan. ABC News projects that the 30 delegates awarded based on Michigan’s Tuesday primary will be evenly split – 15 delegates for Mitt Romney and 15 delegates for Rick Santorum. Mitt Romney may have won the overall vote by a margin of 3 points , but Michigan awards it’s delegates based on how the candidates did in each of the state’s 14 congressional districts, not solely on the popular vote totals. The system works like this: the winner of each Congressional district gets two...

According to the MSM, and most people who blindly follow their reports, Mitt Romney won the Michigan primary last night by about 3 points, 41 to 38. However, like the Electoral College, the point of the contest is not to win the popular vote (Gore – 2000) but to win more delegates per state based on the apportionment of those delegates. Michigan’s primary delegate system allows for a set number of delegates to be won by state wide popular vote and the rest to be evenly distributed by Congressional districts. When you consider the facts of the contest, and the...

From sources that can't be posted on FreeRepublic (Rhymes with Spew-Ez-Hay To-Pay). Posted about an hour ago.

(CNN) -- Rick Santorum claimed a partial victory Wednesday when final results showed he and Mitt Romney evenly split Michigan' s 30 delegates, even though Romney got more overall votes in the Republican presidential primary Tuesday. The latest estimates from CNN showed both candidates with 15 Michigan delegates, while Romney was ahead in the popular vote with 41% to Santorum's 38%. Santorum sought to highlight his strong showing in the state where Romney grew up, ignoring Romney's solid victory in the other primary Tuesday in Arizona. "This is a huge win for us. Let's play it the way it is...

The Republican presidential race faces a potential turning point on Tuesday in contests in Arizona and Michigan, where upstart Rick Santorum threatens to plunge an already unpredictable nominating battle into chaos. Mitt Romney, the former front-runner and presumed nominee, and Santorum are in a close race in Michigan, the state where Romney was raised and his father was an auto executive and popular governor. A Santorum win there would be a devastating blow to Romney, turning lingering doubts about his ability to win the allegiance of Republican primary voters into a deep panic in the party's senior ranks. "If Santorum...

Rick Santorum has opened up a double-digit lead over rival Mitt Romney in Gallup's latest daily tracking poll. The survey finds Santorum with support from 36 percent of registered Republicans nationally, topping Romney at 26 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) follows at 13 percent, with Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 11 percent support.

Rick Santorum has wiped out Mitt Romney’s lead in Arizona, according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Romney took 39 percent in the ARG poll, followed by Santorum at 35 percent, Newt Gingrich at 15 percent and Ron Paul at 11 percent. The poll has a four percent margin of error. If the poll is not an outlier, it’s a shocking development just three days before the Feb. 28 Arizona primary.

How Newt Gingrich Now Helps Mitt Romney Win The arithmetic of Super Tuesday delegate allocation means that Gingrich's presence splits off vital voters from Rick Santorum Harry J Enten guardian.co.uk, Sunday 19 February 2012 A Romney campaign negative ad ahead of January's Florida primary; Gingrich's presence in the GOP race, bankrolled by Sheldon Adelson, now helps Romney against his main challenger, Rick Santorum. Billionaire Sheldon Adelson has decided to donate an additional $10m to Newt Gingrich's Super Pac. The move is expected to boost Gingrich in the lead-up to the 6 March "Super Tuesday" primaries. Gingrich has taken a back...

In 2012, a dozen states will decide whether President Obama is elected to a second term. The PurplePoll focuses exclusively on the Purple Electorate - likely voters only in these swing states. Updated regularly throughout the 2012 election cycle, the PurplePoll will follow leading political indicators and track new issues as they emerge. President Obama currently holds leads against the two top candidates in the GOP field. He leads Mitt Romney by 4 points (47% to 43%) and leads Rick Santorum by 2 points (46% to 44%). President Obama’s performance against Romney has been consistent since December, with leads ranging...

Mitt Romney leads in the Arizona Republican presidential primary with 39%. Romney is followed by Rick Santorum with 35%, Newt Gingrich with 11%, and Ron Paul with 9%. In a similar survey conducted February 13-14, 2012, Romney was leading with 38%, followed by Santorum with 31%, Gingrich with 15%, and Paul with 11%. Support for Santorum has increased 4 percentage points since the last survey and support for Romney has increased 1 percentage point. Romney leads Santorum 50% to 29% among likely Republican primary voters saying they have already voted through early voting. Santorum leads Romney 41% to 29% among...

Santorum Faring 8 Points Better Than Romney Among Independents In 'Core Four States' FEB 24, 2012 • BY JEFFREY H. ANDERSON A Rasmussen poll of likely voters in the “four key states” of Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina, shows Rick Santorum leading President Obama by 5 percentage points among independents, while Obama leads Mitt Romney by 3 percentage points among that crucial group of voters. The Rasmussen poll (taken from February 17-22) takes these four states as a group and shows independents favoring Santorum over Obama by the tally of 47 to 42 percent, while they favor Obama over...

Rick Santorum is surging with Republican voters in Alabama’s March 13 presidential primary, according to statewide polling results released Friday by Alabama State University. Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, is riding a national wave that has catapulted him from the back of the field to front-runner. In Alabama, Santorum has seen a significant increase in support over the past four weeks — much of it coming at the expense of GOP rival Newt Gingrich, according to ASU’s poll. The telephone poll of 470 likely Republican voters showed 18. 9 percent would vote for Gingrich, 18.3 percent for Santorum...

HERE'S A THOUGHT for Presidents Day: President Santorum. Did you just shiver? How in the name of all that's holy is Rick Santorum atop national polls for the Republican nomination? Get it? All that's holy? Maybe that's the answer. You know, the Tebow factor; the Jeremy Lin effect? Well, I have another theory. I wrote Rick off after his strong showing in Iowa, a state that - in an example of what a wacky year this is - he officially won weeks later by one-tenth of 1 percent. I predicted that after Iowa, members of the national media would find...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Well-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l. How about this, ladies and gentlemen? It looks like the establishment Republicans are very worried that Romney cannot win, even if he is nominated. They're very, very worried that, even if Romney is nominated, he can't win, yet they continue to push him. There are a bunch of pieces. By the way, greetings. Great to have you here on Presidents Day. Yes, I know it's a holiday. I did not get deceived by the staff, as I announced on Friday. I was given the option, I was told that today was gonna be Presidents Day and...