Posted on 03/13/2012 9:54:07 PM PDT by Steelfish
Romney Holds Modest Lead Over Santorum In Illinois
3/13/2012 (RTTNews) - Front-runner Mitt Romney has a narrow lead over Rick Santorum among likely voters in the upcoming Illinois primary, a new survey says.
The survey, taken ahead of the March 20 vote, found the former Massachusetts governor slightly ahead of Santorum, 35 percent to 31 percent in Illinois, according to a Chicago Tribune/WGEN-TV poll.
Trailing far behind the top two are former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich at 12 percent and Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 7 percent.
The poll also showed Romney doing well in Chicago's suburbs, where there are generally more moderate Republican voters. In Cook County, Romney tops Santorum 39 percent to 30 percent.
In keeping with the pattern of rural voters preferring Santorum, the survey found the former Pennsylvania senator leads Romney 35 percent to 29 percent in 96 counties outside of Chicago.
Romney continues to struggle with gaining support of those who describe themselves as very conservative, as many question his conservative credentials.
Among very conservative voters in Illinois — 29 percent of the GOP electorate — Santorum leads with 43 percent compared with 29 percent for Romney.
(Excerpt) Read more at rttnews.com ...
This may be a valid point. Santorum does have delegate problems in places Gingrich does not.
Somebody from the Gingrich and Santorum campaigns badly, badly needs to sit down together and figure out whether the best way to defeat Romney is for both Gingrich and Santorum to stay in the race or for conservatives to put up a united front against Romney.
Didn’t Romney lead the polls going into Alabama and Mississippi? We saw how that came out.
Four points is within the margin of error, anyway.
I guess Romney is going to have to throw lots of money at Illinois.
Didn’t Romney lead the polls going into Alabama and Mississippi? We saw how that came out.
Four points is within the margin of error, anyway.
I guess Romney is going to have to throw lots of money at Illinois.
Rick is not on the ballot, in every Congressional District in Illinois!*** I live in Illinois and that's a flat out lie. ***
Bill, I saw that 'not on ballot' bs myself and thought no way in hades. Since some of our congressional districts go through like four counties it's impossible for him to be on one ballot but not on another. But the lie was spread none the less and bought by a lot of folks.
I went to the state Board of Election website to look at the Rules for Candidates and saw zero as to 'congressional districts'. And ditto for the DuPage County Board of Elections - zero on 'congressional districts'.
But what fries my patot in this article is this junk:
In keeping with the pattern of rural voters preferring Santorum, the survey found the former Pennsylvania senator leads Romney 35 percent to 29 percent in 96 counties outside of Chicago.Got that -- 96 Counties "outside of Chicago". The fact is that we have 101 Counties in IL. So now, all of a sudden the MSM has declared that: Will County(1), Dupage County(2), Lake County(3), and Kane County(4) are now 'all part of Chicago' and Crook County(5).
Well I have news flash for them. We fled and I mean FLED, Chicago and Crook County in 1975 when we got married for the political freedom of REPUBLICAN DuPage County, and avoid Chi and Crook like the Plague. And if one of those MSM peckerwoods said to my face I was 'part of Chicago', I'd rip off their empty head and p___ down their neck!
I know you're 'stuck in Crook County' and feel for what you have to go through :-)
I look for waves of dead Democrats in Cook County to pull the lever for Santorum here.
that’s right, a 306% turnout for Republicans in Cook County.
All 32 of ‘em.
CNN was showeing the new journ-O-list meme.
“Romney polls first with ‘moderates’”
CNN was showeing the new journ-O-list meme.
“Romney polls first with ‘moderates’”
If the race drops to an essentially two man race - Mitt vs. the anointed not-Mitt, plus a Paul technicality, and IL is winner take all by district, then the goal is to avoid Mitt district wins where possible. There may be some Mitt majority districts. We can't fix them, whether or not Rick is eligible, by strategy, only by conversions.
Anti-Mitt strategy can only affect non-majority Mitt districts. There, when the anointed not-Mitt is eligible (as in 44/54 IL delegates), that means only one not-Mitt available on the ballot. Leaving 'rejected not-Mitts,' with hard core fans, available, risks letting Mitt win some districts he could have lost. As really happened in MI and OH. (And for extra hard core Newt fans who claim Rick fans should have done the same when they were ahead, only in FL was that alleged to have been an issue; there Mitt beat Newt plus Rick's totals, so really Rick never cost Newt any state.) If any of the Rick ineligible districts (10/54 IL delegates) are non-majority Mitt strategy can't give Rick a win, at best it might deny Mitt one on a technicality. Actively put the message out for Rick voters to vote Paul whenever Rick's not on the ballot. Those complying, plus the 5-10% Paul true believer vote, might cost Mitt a couple delegates. Telling Rick voters to vote Newt misses the true Paul votes and risks a Mitt plurality win. True, a Newt delegate might be better after the first round convention voting, but first you have to get beyond the first round. An anti-Mitt Paul first round vote is easier to strategize than an anti-Mitt Newt one here. VA was the proof of concept.
Here's a link to the sample ballots from the Illinois State Board of Elections. As you can see from the candidate listing, even Buddy Roemer made it "on the ballot" EVERYWHERE in Illinois. Feel free to look at any county:
Here's a link from Santorum's co-IL state coordinator announcing way back in Jan. 18 that Romney, Gingrich, and Paul's teams had agreed to withdraw challenges to each other's petitions and that Santorum would be on the ballot in all 18 congressional districts and 102 counties:
http://santorumillinois.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/good-news-for-republican-party-unity/
Of course, this hasn't stopped the Paulbots from shamelessly lying all over the internet that Santorum "isn't on the ballot in at least 5 major states, including Illinois". FReepers should just check the election boards of these states themselves instead drinking the kool-aid. There is some truth to Santorum not having a full slate of delegates in 4 of the state's 18 congressional districts. However, if you look at the districts where he is shy a few delegates, they are all urban Chicago districts that he's extremely unlikely to win anyway (one is Illinois' 4th Congressional district, where Impy lives, and that is a safe RAT district represented by Luis Guiterrez. My guess is Romney will win it in the primary. Sorry Impy)
Of course, they didn't say "missing a few delegates". They said "Santorum isn't on the ballot in Illinois". Flat out lie. In every precinct, in every county, Illinoisans will find Rick Santorum's name listed in the Presidential contest and be able to vote for him. FACT.
I think it was the Illinois GOP Chair who said otherwise, on TV last night.
I apologize if I am wrong, but I sure did not make this issue up, out of thin air.
Illinois State Party GOP Chairman Pat Brady is a well known RINO and Romneybot. All grassroots conservatives here despise him. He’ll say anything to get his candidate’s the nomination. He’s even tried to interfere in the primary and get Santorum to “drop out” so his guy Romney will be coronated without a contest. I wouldn’t trust him if he said the sun will rise tomorrow. Here’s some of his past actions:
http://yrnetwork.com/media/news.aspx?uid=2026
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2239108/posts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e46Xp3e1_Ms
Perhaps we have performed a public service, here?
Glad to be your “foil” and happy if we helped clear this up.
Apology accepted. The false rumor was started by Paulbots though, and ideally we could take photos of the presidential contest on ballots from all 18 Illinois congressional districts to show America what what shameless liars the Paulbots are. They are obviously trying to deceive people to suppress turnout for Santorum.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.