Posted on 03/14/2012 9:54:02 PM PDT by Steelfish
Illinois Primary Could Be Rick Santorum's Big Chance The Republican presidential contest next week gives the conservative a shot at seizing the momentum from front-runner Mitt Romney, who leads him there by just 4 points.
By Paul West March 14, 2012 After a pair of pivotal Southern tests, the Republican presidential race has become a battle between Mitt Romney's grind-it-out delegate arithmetic and Rick Santorum's popular momentum.
It's not exactly an even nomination fight at the moment. Romney remains the clear favorite, though his campaign advisors don't expect him to lock up the needed 1,144 delegates before May, at the earliest. Santorum scored upset wins Tuesday in Mississippi and Alabama but is unlikely to gain enough delegates during the primary season to overtake Romney. Instead, the insurgent challenger is attempting to keep the front-runner from obtaining a majority before this summer's national convention.
That has added unexpected drama to next week's Illinois primary. "Santorum needs a big unexpected win to fundamentally alter the race," said Republican strategist Mike DuHaime, who is unaligned this year. Illinois, he added, would fit that category.
The state, large and diverse, is not as conservative as others where Santorum has been successful. But a recent Chicago Tribune/WGN poll showed him only 4 percentage points behind Romney statewide, with Newt Gingrich far back.
The Romney forces are again bringing their considerable financial muscle to bear, throwing millions of dollars into Illinois attack ads against Santorum, who has been slow to get on the air. (snip)
"Santorum has to win on Romney turf. Period," Josh Putnam, a Davidson College political scientist who specializes in GOP delegate rules, said in an email. "He has to demonstrate that he can expand beyond the prairie (and surrounding) states and can branch out more than to just Gingrich territory.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Big Chance?
I thought he was the New Messiah at this point!
See yall in 5 days.
4 days and 2 minutes
It is all about delegates. Around the corner, sometime.
Rom-A-Ney, has to vet Rick, then we're going
to Tampa.
Who did they poll? Unless they included a lot of democrats in that poll, it is meaningless. Illinois democrats can and will vote in huge numbers in the Illinois Republican primary.
You walk into the polling place and they have one question for you, "Republican or Democrat ballot"? Obama is unopposed in the rat primary. Rats will vote in the republican race.
What’s Gingrich’s tactic?
voting chaos in all upcoming republican primaries. he may
win but the numbers are not all accurate. So, if he wins more, don't forget to include those liberal voters, okay..okay.. (Re: Daily Kos Cheers for Santorum wins)
You post article after article, written mostly by Romney supporters and the GOPe and you find it necessary to shout ....
Folks get your point, but they disagree, having both Newt and Rick in the race is the only realistic way to prevent Romney from getting the nomination.
Luckily Newt understands this and is not going anywhere.
Ugh. Did they do this in Mississippi and Alabama, too?
Oh no you diddunt!
Yep she did. Truth and nothing but the truth.
Just as we all suspected and now proven.
He can claw his way to the convention, but at some point the numbers are going to fall off and he's going to be clawing alone.
Better to pull out and look magnanimous, than stay in and wind up looking rather pathetic.
Ron Paul will stay in too. Does Newt really want to come off looking like Ron Paul at the end of the day?
Newt's not santorum. He doesn't do things based on how they look, he does things based on his principles. One of the major differences between them.
lol..I am sorry-I know it's like visiting a real bad place..
John King said CNN exit polls showed 5-6% democrats voting in both states. That's santorum's margin over Newt right there, and then some. And the previous post said they are planning the same thing in IL.
Interesting (and incredibly discouraging). I wonder what the party affiliation breakdown was in exit polls for other states, like SC.
I have to believe the democrats will be more active in IL than in both those southern states. I think maybe SC was closed, but not sure.
You know, you really need to spend a half hour to an hour on the Internet looking up Newt’s past. The guy that you think is brilliant, is more or less a vapor trail. And the sad thing is, the information is out there in abundance. You folks come here ragging on Santorum incessantly. Okay, he’s not perfect. At least he has one thing going for him. He’s not Newt.
And BTW, what principles?
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