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News sources have confirmed Jim Runyon, a Gingrich delegate in IL has agreed in principle with 9 other Gingrich delegates in the 4 CD's that Rick Santorum failed to field a slate of delegates, that they will pledge their support for Santorum should he reach Tampa. This will have the effect of eliminating the delegate disadvantage in IL that Santorum was facing, particularly in the 13th Congressional District. It's now possible Santorum may split the delegate allocations by CD with Mitt Romney, or may in face take the lead, despite Romney getting more of the popular vote, since the Congressional...

With former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich low in the polls and splitting the conservative vote with former Sen. Rick Santorum, commentators and pundits have suggested that Gingrich should drop out of the GOP race. Political analyst Scott Rasmussen told The Daily Caller that a dispassionate reading of the tea leaves suggests they’re right. “I think if [Gingrich] dropped out, it would be good for the party and it would be good for Santorum and Romney,” Rasmussen said. “It is much easier and much healthier for the Republican party if you have Santorum and Romney going head-to-head and Ron...

Newt Gingrich had to win Mississippi and Alabama in order to remain a viable candidate. Those states weren't essential because of their delegate counts or their importance to the national election, but because Gingrich had won nothing outside the South and staked everything on a southern strategy. He lost. He remains in the campaign, but he's a ghost, a bitter aftertaste, and a thorn in Rick Santorum's side. Santorum now faces his own "must win" primary, Illinois. He's won more states than Gingrich, but his strength so far has been in the Midwest and South, and in neither region has...

A quick glance at the map might tempt you into thinking that the Republican nomination is roughly an even battle between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, with Mr. Romney tending to prevail in the Northeast and the West, and Mr. Santorum in the Midwest and the South. Do the math, however, and you’ll find that the nomination isn’t all that close. Mr. Romney hasn’t done that well in the South — but he also hasn’t been shut out there, winning Florida and its 50 winner-take-all delegates, and Virginia, where only Ron Paul was on the ballot alongside him. The Southern...

Rick Santorum’s campaign and super PAC have been outspent by a margin of 7 to 1 in the Illinois primary, with forces supporting Mitt Romney shelling out a total of about $3.7 million on the airwaves, according to a GOP media-buying source. Romney’s campaign has spent $1,117,704 million in Illinois while the super PAC Restore Our Future has put in $2.556,353 million. The Santorum campaign spent a comparatively modest $219,961 and the super PAC backing Santorum, the Red White and Blue Fund, put in $312,150. The gulf was even more enormous in the crucial, expensive Chicago media market. There, Romney’s...

Seamus the Irish setter may have died years ago, but the now-infamous story of his rooftop ride has been more firmly cemented into the narrative of the 2012 campaign than his retaliatory excrement was plastered to the back window of the Romney family station wagon during that fateful trip 20 years ago. The Santorum campaign has referenced Mitt Romney’s treatment of his dog Seamus four times over the past week as an anecdote that purportedly calls into question the former governor’s character. -snip- “If you can’t be nice to your dog, who are you going to be nice to?”