Posted on 02/28/2012 7:48:25 PM PST by Red Steel
DETROIT, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Mitt Romney was a double winner Tuesday, capturing the Michigan and Arizona Republican presidential primaries, results showed.
The Detroit Free Press declared Romney the victor over his GOP rivals in Michigan.
With about 74 percent of the precincts counted, Romney had 317,258 votes (41 percent) to Rick Santorum's 286,530 (37 percent), results posted by the Free Press showed. Ron Paul was third with 88,521 votes (12 percent) and Newt Gingrich followed with 50,726 votes (7 percent). Another 2 percent voted "uncommitted" and a handful of votes went to several other Republicans who are no longer contenders.
CNN called Romney the winner in Arizona. With 71 percent of the vote counted, Romney had 191,182 votes (48 percent) to Santorum's 101,232 votes (25 percent). Gingrich was third with 65,182 votes (16 percent), with Paul bringing up the rear with 33,505 votes (8 percent).
Exit polls in the two states Tuesday had indicated electability was the top priority among Republican primary voters.
Thirty-three percent of Michigan voters said beating President Obama is the top priority when selecting a GOP nominee, while 38 percent of voters in Arizona said the same, CBS News exit polls indicated.
Romney and Santorum slashed at each other ahead of the Michigan primary, which was too close to call. The contest in his home state is seen as crucial to Romney and his claim of the front-runner's mantle.
Despite the closeness of the Michigan race, the Post said Romney was expected to win about three times as many convention delegates as Santorum Tuesday. Arizona is a winner-take-all primary. Michigan's 30 delegates are allotted proportionately to the primary winner in each of the state's 14 congressional districts. Arizona's winner picks up all of its 29 delegates.
The Washington Post said Romney was expected to garner 45 delegates from both contests, with Santorum picking up about 15.
Gingrich and Paul were not expected to win any delegates, and did not seriously campaign in the two states.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, have been shooting fireballs at each other in recent days.
Romney blasted Santorum's use of robocalls urging Democrats, who can vote GOP in Michigan, to vote for Santorum.
"I know why [President] Obama doesn't want me to face him but I just think it's outrageous and a terrible dirty trick at the last hour, by the way, late in the afternoon on the day before the election, maybe hoping no one would notice, they start sending out calls to Democrats, union members telling them to go into the Republican primary and vote against Mitt Romney," Romney told Fox News.
"This is a new low for his campaign and that's saying something," he added.
Santorum told Fox News Monday night he's just trying to attract the Democratic voters he'll need in November.
"When he runs a robocall of my voice from four years ago saying good things about him, that's not a low moment, and when I run a call basically saying, calling Democrats that are eligible to vote here, to vote for us, that's a low?" he said.
A-fricken men.
We just raided Romney’s home base and took away all his delegate advantage in MI. That’s a swing of 30 delegates. And people want to quit now?
Good thing Santorum didn’t give up when everyone told him to quit - damn near won the thing outright.
I got a lot accomplished with FR down last night and today. Boy I sure hope that doesn’t happen too often. :)
I agree.
Because rumor has it that Kamala Harris will be Il Douche's next SC pick?
altura wrote:
Grow up, people.
I don’t know what you expected. Mitt was supposed to win big and he barely won.
He’s not the candidate yet and probably won’t be.
He’s also not the devil incarnate so anyone who wants to throw up their hands and give this election to Obama because their guy didn’t win is an idiot.
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Thank you for bringing some badly needed perspective into this discussion. We’re talking about a GOP establishment-backed candidate here that had to pour all kinds of time, money, and resources into HIS OWN NATIVE STATE, including outspending Santorum by a 5-to-1 ratio, and he only ends up winning by a SMALL MARGIN! And by the time the ballot counting is finished, it’s conceivable Santorum may still actually end up winning MORE Michigan delegates than Romney!
Folks, this isn’t exactly what I call a game changer for Mitt Romney. Not to mention, he’s still lagging behind Santorum and Gingrich in key Super Tuesday states in the midwest and the south. As far as I’m concerned, this nomination is still VERY much up for grabs.
Santorum is a laughable, pathetic, clumsy, awkward, wholly unpresidential candidate.
Newt is a powerhouse, a force of nature, a breathtakingly charismatic speaker, a brilliant thinker, the best and most qualified candidate the party has had on the ballot since Ronald Reagan.
Anyone still hoping for Santorum to win anything is stabbing a knife into the heart of the conservative movement whether they realize it or not. They make it incredibly more likely that either a moderate who DESPISES conservatives wins the presidency or that Obama wins the presidency and most likely takes the nation off a cliff that it will never recover from short of a collapse on the scale of the Soviet Union.
And you think Romney would not select someone like her? Does his record support that?
Certainly, a win beats a draw any day. My guess is super Tuesday will shed lot of light on what is coming.
Delegates R 15 S 13 Undecided 2
I hope to recover enough from flu by Saturday to participate in WA state caucus. I understand it is again an open election. IOW any registered voter can vote regardless of party. I am not in favor of that system.
“Anyone still hoping for Santorum to win anything”
He already has. Won Iowa, Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota.
For a candidate who’s so awkward and unpresidential, he sure seems to be doing much better than Newt.
Sorry, but I spent time in the Eastern Bloc countries. Trust me, you do not want this country going there. And no, we're not there yet. But we will be very quickly if he gets another term.
Well, it’s time for another raid on the North. Santorum can take WA - and rack up another hit to Romney. We’re gonna need everyone we can get to take him down!
Santorum has won Iowa*, MN, CO, and MN. He is well ahead in OK, TN, OH, PA. He is leading in AL, WA. Newt is leading in GA. A lot of good the powerhouse label is doing him. Sadly, if Santorum does begin to slip and Newt rise, we’ll end Super Tuesday with Romney half way to the nomination after just over one third of the contests.
I agree. One day to vote and show up in person.
The other ways of voting were invented to facilitate fraud.
Newt still has more popular votes than Santorum. He had about double more votes than Santorum until these recent contests that Newt didn't participate in. Rick put his eggs in these states and started losing as soon as he got vetted and examined by Romney's slime machine and the media. Newt has been saving all his eggs for Super Tuesday and now that all the candidates have been fully sampled by the voters, it's time for Newt, the obvious best candidate to rise to the top on his own intrinsic merits.
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