Primaries+and+Caucuses

= = [|**Primary and Caucuses Schedule**] Minnesota (caucus) [|__**Results**__] Missouri (primary) – *See note below on Missouri* [|__**Results**__] || Michigan (primary) [|__**Results**__] || (Super Tuesday) || Alaska (caucus) Georgia (primary) Idaho (caucus) Massachusetts (primary) North Dakota (caucus) Ohio (primary) Oklahoma (primary) Tennessee (primary) Vermont (primary) Virginia (primary) || U.S. Virgin Islands (caucus) || Hawaii (caucus) Mississippi (primary) || Maryland (primary) Wisconsin (primary) Texas (primary) || Delaware (primary) New York (primary) Pennsylvania (primary) Rhode Island (primary) || North Carolina (primary) West Virginia (primary) || Oregon (primary) || Kentucky (primary) || Montana (primary) New Jersey (primary) New Mexico (primary) South Dakota (primary) ||
 * **January 3, 2012** || Iowa (caucus) – [|__**Results**__] ||
 * **January 10, 2012** || New Hampshire (primary) – [|__**Results**__] ||
 * **January 21, 2012** || South Carolina (primary) – [|__**Results**__] ||
 * **January 31, 2012** || Florida (primary) – [|__**Results**__] ||
 * **February 4, 2012** || Nevada (caucus) [|__**Results**__] ||
 * **February 4–11, 2012** || Maine (caucus) [|__**Results**__] *see note below on Maine ||
 * **February 7, 2012** || Colorado (caucus) [|__**Results**__]
 * **February 28, 2012** || Arizona (primary) [|__**Results**__]
 * **February, 2012** || Wyoming (caucus) [|__**Results**__] ||
 * **March 3, 2012** || Washington (caucus) ||
 * **March 6, 2012**
 * **March 10, 2012** || Kansas (caucus)
 * **March 13, 2012** || Alabama (primary)
 * **March 17, 2012** || Missouri (GOP caucus) – *See note below on Missouri ||
 * **March 18, 2012** || Puerto Rico (primary) ||
 * **March 20, 2012** || Illinois (primary) ||
 * **March 24, 2012** || Louisiana (primary) ||
 * **April 3, 2012** || District of Columbia (primary)
 * **April 24, 2012** || Connecticut (primary)
 * **May 8, 2012** || Indiana (primary)
 * **May 15, 2012** || Nebraska (primary)
 * **May 22, 2012** || Arkansas (primary)
 * **June 5, 2012** || California (primary)
 * **June 26, 2012** || Utah (primary) ||

IOWA CAUCUS RESULTS: 29,839 24.6% Mitt Romney 29,805 24.5% Ron Paul 26,036 21.4% Newt Gingrich 16,163 13.3% Rick Perry 12,557 10.3% Michele Bachmann 6,046 5% Jon Huntsman 739 0.6% Other 316 0.3% || Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucuses Thursday — 16 days after the last vote was cast — when the state Republican Party said a final count showed him 34 votes ahead of Mitt Romney. That was a shift from the preliminary results the party announced after the Jan. 3 caucuses, which showed the former Massachusetts governor winning Iowa by eight votes. Iowa Republican leaders said that they had still not received results from eight of the state’s 1,774 precincts. The news does not alter the bottom line of the GOP primary race: the number of delegates that Santorum or Romney will receive at the national convention. For all their hype, the Iowa caucuses do not actually decide that. But Santorum’s belated victory did seem likely to alter the pundits’ narrative of the Republican race — by demonstrating that the long-shot former senator from Pennsylvania did, indeed, have the ability to beat the front-runner. At least once. By a little bit. “The narrative that Governor Romney and the media have been touting of ‘inevitability’ has been destroyed,” Santorum communications director Hogan Gidley said in a news release. “Conservatives can now see and believe they don’t have to settle for Romney, the Establishment’s moderate candidate.” Santorum’s squeaker victory means that Romney can no longer claim to be the only non-incumbent Republican candidate since 1976 to win both the Iowa caucuses and [|New Hampshire’s]first-in-the-nation primary. Romney, for his part, issued a statement calling the results “a virtual tie.”’ Santorum’s strange, belated victory also served to embarrass the Iowa GOP — which had to admit that it had misallocated some votes, and simply lost some others, in a razor’s-edge election where every vote mattered. It also cast an unflattering light on the old-fashioned and convoluted system that the party uses to collect and count caucus votes. “It should be like a fine Swiss watch,” said Iowa State political science professor Steffen Schmidt. “It’s really more like a sundial.” He said the system used by Iowa Democrats was not significantly better. In fact, Iowa Republican leaders seemed to cast doubt on their own results, saying Thursday that it was hard to declare a “winner” without knowing what happened in those eight precincts. Matthew N. Strawn, the state party chairman, simply “congratulated” Santorum and Romney “on a hard-fought effort during the closest contest in caucus history.” This is how the process is supposed to work: On caucus night, local volunteers collect the votes of local Republicans. Often, this is done by asking voters to write their choices on small slips of paper, all in a uniform color to prevent fraud. After the votes are counted up (and bad handwriting is puzzled out), local officials write each candidate’s total on something called a “Form E.” This form — but not the ballots themselves — is then sent to the state GOP. Thursday’s final count came from these forms, which had to be submitted by Wednesday evening. The Des Moines Register, citing unidentified officials in the Iowa GOP, reported that in 131 precincts, the forms showed numbers different than those reported on caucus night. But some Form E’s didn’t show up at all. The state party found that it was missing results from eight precincts, spread across five counties. The eight precincts probably did not account for a huge number of votes — in the 2008 GOP caucuses, they had a total of 298 votes. But in this election, of course, 298 votes could easily have swung the outcome. But now it is too late for the missing votes to count. “It’s done,” said a party spokesman, who asked that his name not be used. About the missing votes, he said: “We never got ’em. We tried to track ’em down, and for whatever reason, we don’t have them.” One of the missing forms was from the Geneva-Reeve precinct, which covers two small towns in Iowa’s midsection. Local volunteers in that precinct were supposed to return Form E to the county GOP chair, Karen Zander. After the caucuses, Zander said she gathered paperwork that was sent to her from precincts across the county. She emptied the envelopes and sorted the loose papers into piles. Then she bundled the Form E’s that she found together and sent them in. So how did that single one vanish? Zander said she doesn’t know: Did the volunteers at the caucus site lose it? Did she misplace it in the shuffle of paperwork? “Now that the count is done, I don’t think that there’s anything we can do about it,” she said. “I’m going to take the blame for it, because I am the county chair. . . . If I blame one of [the volunteers], I’ll never get another precinct chair to volunteer.”
 * Rick Santorum
 * Santorum finished 34 votes ahead of Romney in new Iowa tally; votes from 8 precincts missing **

= Iowa Caucus = More than two weeks after the 2012 Iowa caucus, a final certified tally showed former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum finishing with 29,839 votes and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 29,805. After the initial results came in following the Jan. 3 Iowa event, Romney was believed to have won the caucus by a mere 8 votes. Republican officials indicated Santorum finished ahead of Romney by 34 votes on Thursday. The //Des Moines Register// reports that votes from eight precincts will never be counted, however, and therefore the ultimate tally remains inconclusive. HuffPost's Elise Foley reports : > Officials found inaccurate counts in 131 precincts, including one that had an error by 50 votes, the//Des Moines Register// reported on Thursday. Chad Olsen, the party’s executive director, told the //Register// that the results showed "a split decision." The final tallies, exempting the eight precincts that will not be tallied, were 29,839 for Santorum and 29,805 for Romney, according to the //Register//. > The Santorum campaign said the change in results could change the narrative of Romney as a frontrunner. > "The narrative for a long time has been that Mitt Romney was 2-0," Spokesman Hogan Gidley told CNN on Thursday. "And if these results are true and Rick is ahead by 34 votes, then that's not the narrative anymore. There have been two states, two different victors." Romney didn't appear to agree. "The results from Iowa caucus night revealed a virtual tie," Romney said in a statement after the certification of the results. "I would like to thank the Iowa Republican Party for their careful attention to the caucus process, and we once again recognize Rick Santorum for his strong performance in the state." Santorum's campaign shot back after these comments, suggesting that Romney was being immature in his response. "He sounds like a kid who didn’t get what he wanted for his birthday so he smashed the cake,” Santorum strategist and adviser John Brabender told ABC News . "In New Hampshire, Sen. Santorum called Mitt Romney and congratulated him. Romney should have the dignity, honor, and character to call and congratulate us on our win in Iowa."

Rick Santorum and his adorable daughter

New Hampshire Primary Results : 97,532 39.3% Ron Paul 56,848 22.9% Jon Huntsman 41,945 16.9% Newt Gingrich 23,411 9.4% Rick Santorum 23,362 9.4% Rick Perry 1,766 0.7% Other 3,621 1.5% ||
 * Mitt Romney

New Hampshire Primary

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Mitt Romney says he's ready for an uphill climb in South Carolina after coasting through New Hampshire. As the Republican presidential contest moves south, his rivals are sharpening their attacks and hoping to win over tea partyers and religious conservatives who feel uncomfortable with the front-runner. Still, Romney continued to project a confident style Wednesday that must be wearing on his five opponents. He dismissed much of their criticism as stemming from desperation. And he said that while several can raise enough campaign money to keep the nomination fight going, "I expect them to fall by the wayside eventually for lack of voters." Despite the rougher tone and tougher ideological terrain ahead, the former Massachusetts governor is looking to force his opponents from the race by achieving a four-state streak with victories in South Carolina on Jan. 21 and Florida 10 days later. He posted a double-digit win Tuesday night in New Hampshire after a squeaker the week before in Iowa - making him the first non-incumbent Republican in a generation to pull off the back-to-back feat. "Tonight we celebrate. Tomorrow we go back to work," Romney told a raucous victory party in Manchester, N.H., probably mindful of the minefields that South Carolina held for him four years ago when he failed to win over Republicans skeptical of his Mormon faith and reversals on some social issues. "We are asking the good people of South Carolina to join the citizens of New Hampshire." All the candidates planned to campaign in the state Wednesday. Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, ex-Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman were flying in from New Hampshire. They'll join Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who didn't invest much time in New Hampshire while putting his post-Iowa focus on South Carolina. Several of Romney's rivals have made clear they will seek to undercut the chief rationale of his candidacy: that his experience in private business makes him the strongest Republican to take on President Barack Obama on the economy in the fall. Perry, for one, is accusing Romney of "vulture capitalism" that led to job losses in economically distressed South Carolina. Romney said his opponents sound like Democrats attacking the free enterprise system and encouraging jealousy toward the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. "It's a very envy-oriented attack," he said Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show. Romney said the criticism of his past dealings actually works to his benefit by highlighting the business acumen that will help him set the nation's economy right and shrink the federal government. TV ads already are filling the airwaves, including negative spots like a new one from Gingrich assailing Romney for switching his position on an issue that resonates strongly with evangelicals who make up the base of the GOP here. "He governed pro-abortion," the Gingrich ad says. "Massachusetts moderate Mitt Romney: He can't be trusted." About $3.5 million already has been spent on TV ads in South Carolina, the bulk of it by Perry and a supportive super PAC. But that doesn't count the $3.4 million a pro-Gingrich group has pledged to spend to go after Romney, or the $2.3 million a pro-Romney group plans to spend in the coming days. Santorum and a super PAC friendly to him also are pouring money into the state, as is an outside group working on Huntsman's behalf. Expect a flood of more hard-hitting commercials - primarily aimed at the front-runner - in a state known for brass-knuckled Republican politics. Romney, for his part, is dismissing the attacks, most notably the ones over his time at Bain Capital. "President Obama wants to put free enterprise on trial. In the last few days, we have seen some desperate Republicans join forces with him," Romney said in his victory speech, chastising his critics while acting as though he is already the nominee. "This is such a mistake for our party and for our nation." "The country already has a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy," Romney added. For all of Romney's challenges, the presence of a cluster of socially conservative candidates fighting to be his chief alternative could work in his favor by splitting the vote on the party's right flank. Santorum, Gingrich, Perry and others split the faith-focused vote in Iowa. South Carolina also has a large contingent of evangelical voters, some of whom remain suspicious of Romney. "I don't know if we can win South Carolina, I was fourth there last time I ran," Romney said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America. "I know it's an uphill battle." But Romney noted that he carried the conservative and tea party vote in South Carolina.  Unlike New Hampshire, South Carolina could end up being the last stop for some candidates.  Perry, for one, has had back-to-back dismal showings, and is dismissing the earlier contests as inconsequential as he looks to right his struggling campaign in South Carolina.  "They kind of start separating the wheat from the chaff, if you will," Perry told a cafe crowd Tuesday. "But South Carolina picks presidents."  Gingrich, the former Georgia lawmaker, is also playing on his regional ties.  "The ideal South Carolina fight would be a Georgia conservative versus a Massachusetts moderate," he said, echoing a theme central to his fierce ads.  Santorum and Huntsman also have vowed to press on in the face of Romney's latest victory. Santorum wants to claim the conservative mantle; Huntsman eschews ideological labels and is selling himself as someone who can heal a polarized nation. "Third place is a ticket to ride, ladies and gentleman," Huntsman boomed from the lectern after finishing third in New Hampshire. "Hello, South Carolina."

South Carolina Primary Results: 243,172 40.4% Mitt Romney 167,297 27.8% Rick Santorum 102,061 17% Ron Paul 78,000 13% Other 10,685 1.8% ||
 * Newt Gingrich

= South Carolina Primary =

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Surprising his rivals and scrambling the Republican race for the presidency, __ [|Newt Gingrich] __ won the pivotal South Carolina primary Saturday, just 10 days after a distant finish in New Hampshire left the impression that his candidacy was all but dead. It was a striking development in a months-long Republican nominating contest that has seen the restive base of conservative voters ping-pong among the alternatives to the party establishment’s favorite, __ [|Mitt Romney] __. With late-night tallies showing Mr. Gingrich beating Mr. Romney by 12 percentage points, it was no small win. Exit polls showed Mr. Gingrich had done it with a formidable coalition of groups that have resisted Mr. Romney’s candidacy all election season long: evangelical Christians, __ [|Tea Party] __supporters and those who call themselves “very conservative.” Mr. Gingrich now heads to Florida, where he faces a daunting test in seeking to capitalize on his new status as the candidate who poses a singular, insurgent threat to Mr. Romney. He used his victory speech to cast himself as the champion of the party’s anti-establishment wing, reprising his popular castigation of the news media and other “elites” while keeping his focus on the defeat of President Obama. Standing beside his wife, Callista, as he addressed an exuberant crowd in Columbia, Mr. Gingrich attributed his victory to “something very fundamental that I wish the powers that be in the news media will take seriously: The American people feel that they have elites who have been trying for a half-century to force us to quit being American and become some kind of other system.” Complimenting the other candidates, he repeated his criticism of Mr. Obama as the best “food stamp president” in history, saying he, by contrast, would be the “best paycheck president.” The crowd greeted Mr. Gingrich with chants of “Newt can win,” their answer to the party establishment’s doubts about his ability to ultimately defeat Mr. Romney. But for a night, at least, there was no arguing with the results. Just 10 days before, Mr. Romney left New Hampshire as the presumed front-runner. He now moves on to the next fight claiming just one of the first three nominating contests, having been stripped last week of his incorrectly declared victory in the Iowa caucuses. That win was instead given to Rick Santorum, who placed third in South Carolina on Saturday. “This race is getting to be even more interesting,” Mr. Romney, with circles under his eyes and an unfamiliar pallor after days of hard campaigning here, told his supporters in Columbia. “This is a hard fight because there is so much worth fighting for. We’ve still got a long way to go and a lot of work to do.” But Mr. Romney still has a considerable advantage over Mr. Gingrich when it comes to money and organization, both of which will be vital in the expensive campaign state of Florida, which has its primary on Jan. 31. And Florida is different political terrain from South Carolina, where Mr. Gingrich had cultivated the Tea Party movement’s leaders since its start. Mr. Romney and the “super PAC” supporting him have been advertising heavily in Florida for weeks, including on Spanish-language television. An analysis by Kantar Media/CMAG shows that Mr. Romney has spent at least $4 million on advertising there. Mr. Romney’s team was expected to come into the state trumpeting major endorsements and reasserting his status as a favorite of the biggest names in Republican politics. But his hopes of landing the coveted endorsement of former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida were dashed when Mr. Bush said he would not make an endorsement. He told Bloomberg News that Mr. Romney, Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum had all sought his support. He called on the candidates to leave the “circular firing squad” of their rivalry and make sure that the tone of their debate did not alienate independent voters, especially on__ [|immigration] __. And Mr. Romney should release his tax returns while competing in Florida, Mr. Bush said. Mr. Gingrich and his supportive super PAC — which pounded Mr. Romney here relentlessly — have not advertised in Florida yet, though Mr. Gingrich has visited the state often. On one visit last week, he told Floridians that his plan was to win in South Carolina and then compete strongly there. It seemed unlikely then. Mr. Gingrich seized on his South Carolina victory less than an hour after the polls closed. “Thank you South Carolina! Help me deliver the knockout punch in Florida. Join our Moneybomb and donate now,” he wrote on his Twitter feed. His campaign placed a large ad on the Web site the Drudge Report, popular among conservatives, seeking donations as well. The super PAC supporting Mr. Gingrich, Winning Our Future, indicated it was ready to run advertisements in Florida arguing, among other things, that Mr. Obama would be able to eviscerate Mr. Romney in debates by holding his more liberal past positions against him. With a third-place finish here, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, said he, too, would carry on to Florida. It was a disappointing night for Mr. Santorum. He was hoping to use his newly declared victory in Iowa, and his expected appeal to religious conservatives in the state, to be the leading challenger to Mr. Romney. Sounding very much like the campaign of Jon M. Huntsman Jr., after he came in third in New Hampshire — and dropped out several days later— Mr. Santorum’s aides said he would try to compete in several states in an effort to collect delegates and emerge as the true conservative alternative to Mr. Romney. “We will go to Florida, and then we’re going to Arizona!” Mr. Santorum said at a rally here at The Citadel. “I’m going to go out and talk about how we’re going to have a Republican Party, a conservative movement, that makes sure that everyone in America has the opportunity to rise.” The campaign of Representative Ron Paul of Texas, who came in fourth, has indicated that it intends to work only lightly in Florida and focus instead on races in the Western and Mountain states. In his concession speech in Columbia, Mr. Paul indirectly dismissed Mr. Gingrich as one of the also-ran candidates who have gone “up and then down, up and then down” in this contest since its start. Mr. Gingrich intends to stay in front this time. His victory represents a decisive revival for a candidacy that had been declared dead at least twice, and that came back to life in the last days before the primary here partly because of his commanding debate performances. His aides are using the debates as a selling point in their argument that Mr. Gingrich provides the best challenge to Mr. Obama. His win effectively resets the nominating contest. Still, Mr. Romney’s aides remain confident that their advantages in Florida will deliver an important and re-energizing victory there. But as Mr. Gingrich began to climb rapidly in polls this week, and Mr. Romney’s aides prepared for defeat, they said they would not be so bold as to predict an easy time in Florida, given how the momentum could affect the dynamic there. It is Mr. Gingrich who now has the momentum, and, they acknowledge, that could significantly alter the playing field in Florida. If nothing else, the fact that just over half of South Carolina voters said in exit polls that they made up their minds at the last minute shows just how fluid and restive the Republican electorate remains — a troubling sign for Mr. Romney that Mr. Gingrich is now poised to capitalize upon. And after being so confident just 10 days ago, the Romney campaign is now fighting not only the perception that Mr. Romney cannot consolidate broad support among conservative voters, but also at least one troubling fact: No Republican has gone on to win the party’s nomination without winning South Carolina since before 1980. Exit polls showed two key factors in Mr. Romney’s loss: religion and viability. Pluralities of voters who said their priorities were Mr. Obama’s defeat in the fall or a nominee who shares their religious beliefs supported Mr. Gingrich, a Roman Catholic, over Mr. Romney, a Mormon. Over all, two-thirds of voters on Saturday considered themselves “conservative,” and 4 in 10 called themselves “very conservative,” larger percentages than did so in the New Hampshire primary. Mr. Gingrich, according to exit polls, even beat Mr. Romney among groups that were believed to be solidly with Mr. Romney, chief among them women, debunking pre-primary day prognostications that news of his past marital problems would alienate female voters. Speaking outside a polling station at the Hazel V. Parker Playground here in Charleston, Lynn Land, 61, said she decided to vote for Mr. Gingrich “at the very last second,” complimenting him for showing an ability to think on his feet at the debates. “He is a seasoned politician and will be able to debate Obama on an even level,” Mrs. Land said. Marjorie Connelly and Katharine Q. Seelye contributed reporting from Charleston, and Allison Kopicki from New York.

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= Florida Primary =

TAMPA, Fla. — __ [|Mitt Romney] __ rolled to victory in the Florida primary on Tuesday, dispatching an insurgent threat from __ [|Newt Gingrich] __ and reclaiming his dominant position as he urged Republicans to rally behind his quest to capture the party’s presidential nomination.

[|Florida Primary Results »] ||||~ CANDIDATE


 * ~ PCT. ||
 * < [[image:http://i1.nyt.com/projects/assets/election_2012/images/candidate_photos/mitt-romney/mitt-romney_38.jpg]] ||< Romney ||> 46.4% ||
 * < [[image:http://i1.nyt.com/projects/assets/election_2012/images/candidate_photos/newt-gingrich/newt-gingrich_38.jpg]] ||< Gingrich ||> 31.9 ||
 * < [[image:http://i1.nyt.com/projects/assets/election_2012/images/candidate_photos/rick-santorum/rick-santorum_38.jpg]] ||< Santorum ||> 13.4 ||
 * < [[image:http://i1.nyt.com/projects/assets/election_2012/images/candidate_photos/ron-paul/ron-paul_38.jpg]] ||< Paul ||> 7.0 ||
 * < [[image:http://i1.nyt.com/projects/assets/election_2012/images/candidate_photos/others/others_38.jpg]] ||< Others ||> 1.3 ||

The triumph by Mr. Romney offered a forceful response to the concerns that were raised about his candidacy only 10 days ago after a stinging loss to Mr. Gingrich in the South Carolina primary. It stripped Mr. Gingrich of his momentum and raised questions about his effort to persuade Republicans of his viability. “A competitive primary does not divide us,” Mr. Romney told his cheering supporters. “It prepares us. And we will win.” He urged Republicans to focus on defeating President Obama, declaring, “I stand ready to lead this party and to lead our nation.” The outcome of the Florida primary promised to reorder the field of Republican candidates. As Mr. Gingrich pledged to fight on, saying that he would resist attempts to drive him from the race, he faced a newly aggressive challenge from Rick Santorum, who finished a distant third here. The growing strength of Mr. Romney was clear across nearly all segments of the Republican electorate. No state where Republicans have competed this year is more reflective of the nation’s geographical, political and ethnic diversity than Florida, and its complexity seemed to help Mr. Romney to turn back the grass-roots coalition that Mr. Gingrich had been counting on. Mr. Romney defeated Mr. Gingrich by a margin of 14 percentage points, a telling gap that the Romney campaign hoped would be resounding enough to undermine Mr. Gingrich’s ability to be seen as a credible threat. Yet Mr. Gingrich did not see it that way. He spoke to a crowd in Orlando holding signs reading “46 States to Go,” saying he had a message for those wondering about the future of his presidential bid. “We are going to contest every place, and we will win,” said Mr. Gingrich, who did not congratulate Mr. Romney for his victory, nor did he call him. Sensing a new opening in the race, Mr. Santorum said Tuesday night that he intended to emerge as the true conservative alternative over Mr. Gingrich. He is running new commercials in Nevada and Colorado comparing Mr. Gingrich to Mr. Obama. “In Florida, Newt Gingrich had his opportunity,” Mr. Santorum told supporters in Las Vegas. He said, “I’m going to be the conservative alternative, I’m going to be the anti-Mitt,’ and it didn’t work.” The victory by Mr. Romney, delivered by a diverse coalition of the Republican electorate, allowed him to return to the hard job of pulling together a divided party and resume his argument that he has the best chance at beating Mr. Obama. “My leadership will end the Obama era and begin a new era of American prosperity,” Mr. Romney said, sounding very much like a general election candidate. As a crowd cheered his name here in the city where Republicans will gather to crown their nominee, he added: “When we gather back here in Tampa seven months from now for our convention, ours will be a united party with a winning ticket for America.” The victory was the first for Mr. Romney that came without an asterisk. His narrow advantage on the night of the Iowa caucuses was overturned two weeks later in the certified results. His New Hampshire win was discounted by his Republican rivals because he was seen as a favorite son from a neighboring state. But his strong finish in Florida, which drew more voters than the first three contests combined, represented an extraordinary turnaround for his prospects to win the nomination. The outcome of the race, his advisers argued, should ease the qualms among some Republicans that he is not sufficiently conservative. His support in urban areas with concentrations of affluent and older Republicans was enough to overcome strong __ [|Tea Party] __ supporters, white evangelicals and self-described “very conservative” voters who coalesced around Mr. Gingrich in South Carolina.

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=Nevada Caucus 2012: Romney Has Momentum While Gingrich Tries To Claw Back = The Republican presidential campaign rolled westward Wednesday, Mitt Romney riding herd after his Florida primary victory, Newt Gingrich looking for a new stake and a top party leader insisting the long trail won't necessarily hurt the GOP in the race against President Barack Obama. Already the television ads were showing up in states that vote next, caucuses in Nevada on Saturday, in Minnesota and Colorado next Tuesday and in Maine the following weekend. "I'm feeling like we've got a good pathway ahead," Romney declared in a television interview on the day after his Florida triumph. He is favored in Nevada, where there are 28 Republican National Convention delegates at stake. And, alone among the contenders, appears to have the money to compete aggressively in all the other states as well. Gingrich decamped from Florida but with prospects considerably dimmer than Romney's. He was conceding nothing. Routed on Tuesday night, the former House speaker vowed to stay in the race until the party convention next summer. And his decision not to telephone the primary winner with congratulations drew notice. "I guess Speaker Gingrich doesn't have our phone number," Romney said. The Florida campaign was marked by millions of dollars in negative ads, and Gingrich's promise to remain in the race raised the prospect of a months-long struggle. But current House Speaker John Boehner said he was not concerned., "I would remind people that President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a fight that went through June of 2008. I think everybody just needs to realize that this will resolve itself," he said. Jubilant in victory on Tuesday night, Romney was thrown onto the defensive the day after. "I'm not concerned about the very poor" because they have a social safety net, he said on CNN. Criticized quickly, he hastened to clarify. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no," Romney told reporters on his campaign plane when asked about the comments. He referred back to his complete remarks, in which he had said he would focus on middle-income Americans rather than the very poor, who get government help, or the very rich, who don't need it. "My energy is going to be devoted to helping middle-income people," he said. By then, though, he was drawing criticism from conservatives who worried he was showing a penchant for verbal gaffes as well as from Obama's campaign manager. "So much for `we're all in this together,'" tweeted Jim Messina. Gingrich piled on. " I am fed up with politicians in either party dividing Americans against each other," he said. After making no significant campaign effort in Florida, former Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul looked for better days in the contests just ahead. Santorum picked up an endorsement from former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, known for his hardline position on immigration. Eager to emerge as the leading conservative in the race, Santorum said Gingrich was nearing the end of his run. "If Newt's out of the race, all his votes come to me," he said, mirroring what the former House speaker frequently says about him. In a speech in Woodland Park, Colo., Santorum said Romney's nomination would doom the party to defeat in the fall. "Barack Obama, in a debate or in this election, is going to destroy Mitt Romney on the issue of health care," Santorum warned, saying that the former governor supported a requirement for individuals to purchase health care in Massachusetts that is akin to the provision in the legislation that Obama signed into federal law. Paul, campaigning in Las Vegas, said he favors an immigration policy that doesn't rely on "barbed wire fences and guns on the border." Appearing before an audience of Hispanics, he said he opposes illegal immigration but also is against any effort to round up and deport individuals who are in the United States illegally. After a month in which four contests produced three winners, Romney appeared to hold formidable advantages in fundraising and organization to go with a lead in national convention delegates. After winning all 50 at stake in Florida, he had 87 in AP's count. Gingrich had 26 delegates, Rick Santorum had 14 and Ron Paul had four. It takes 1,144 to win the nomination. Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show Romney's campaign had $20 million on hand as of Jan. 1 and Restore Our Future, an outside group that supports him, had $23.6 million. The total of $43.6 million dwarfs figures reported by the other contenders and the groups that back them, although the onset of the 2012 caucuses and primaries was certain to have produced changes. Figures from Florida show Romney and Restore Our Future spent more than $15 million on television ads combined, many of which attacked Gingrich. The former speaker and an organization that backs him spent less than $4 million. Already, Romney and Restore our Future were airing ads in Nevada, as was Paul. Paul also was on the air in Minnesota, along with the Red White and Blue Fund, which support Santorum. ___ Associated Press writers Philip Elliott and Beth Fouhy in Colorado, Kasie Hunt in Minnesota, Laurie Kellman in Washington and Shannon McCaffrey in Nevada contributed to this story.

=Nevada caucuses could give Rick Santorum and Ron Paul an opening = While it’s true that former Mitt Romney has come out of Florida stronger than ever, he’s not invincible. In fact, Rick Santorum is already telling Colorado that in their caucuses next Tuesday that “it is time to reset the race,” by going with him, noting that Newt Gingrich had his shot, but that his erratic remarks have made people nervous. With me, Santorum promises, “You will not have to worry everyday when you open up the paper: ‘Oh, what did he say today? What planet are we going to colonize next?’” referring to Gingrich. As for flip-flopping Romney, Santorum insists that if he is elected president, people will know who he is and where he stands: “…you will know also that when you open up that paper, he [Santorum] hasn’t changed his mind. That he stands true north.” Will Santorum’s strategy work? It just might. After all, Colorado is a hotbed of Tea Partiers and religious conservatives. And caucuses are famous or, dare we say, notorious for going outside the box simply because so few people participate with only the hardcore activists usually showing up. Look at how Santorum pulled off an upset in the Iowa caucuses. He could be primed to do so again. Then there’s Congressman Ron Paul. His supporters border on the feverish in their mania for the man and his policies, making caucuses ideal for sending their candidate across the finish line. Four years ago, Paul finished second to Mitt Romney in Nevada and his campaign operation has remained in the state ever since. In fact the West, where Paul’s libertarian views ignite passions, takes pride in calling itself the frontier where anything goes. Right now, even the gals of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, the famous brothel just outside of Carson City, have switched from supporting Obama in 2008 to Ron Paul. No comment yet, from Dr. Paul. He is busy campaigning across Nevada and shoring up his grassroots support, something a candidate needs in spades if he is to take that state. All along Paul has been savvy in husbanding his money and resources, seeking the best opportunities to pick up delegates, usually targeting states with caucuses. Even though the turnout historically is low, caucus states favor maverick candidates like Ron Paul. Or as Paul himself said, "We will spend our time in the caucus states because if you have an irate, tireless minority, you do very well in the caucus states.” That leaves Newt Gingrich. Don’t count him out, even if Santorum is doing so. Still smarting from the thumping he got from Romney in Florida and licking the scabs from his wounds in the ad wars, Newt is determined to go the whole nine yards and return to Tampa for the GOP convention and wreak havoc as only Newt can. Or as the former House Speaker himself put it, the campaign is far from over and it’s going to be “wild and wooly.” He is in it for the long haul as is Paul. So will his Super PAC buddy, billionaire Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who have reportedly given a combined $10 million to Winning Our Future, once again peddle their brand of political ads as they did so successfully in South Carolina against Romney? However, since arriving in Nevada, according to the Washington Post, Newt’s campaign has been in a shambles: canceling a photo op with Nevada’s popular Republican governor, changing the time of rallies, and showing up hours late to others. He had hoped to inspire the Tea Party folks that he is the Chosen One, but since the Sharon Angle debacle when she ran against Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid two years ago, it has not been the same organization, badly fractured. Add to this Gingrich’s depleted treasury; he hasn’t the money to mount a solid ground operation even though he supposedly has a comprehensive and enviable list of Republican voters. So far, Gingrich is showing more bombast than results. The question then becomes, if he trails Romney, Santorum, and Paul coming out of Nevada, how can he remain in the race? Right now Mitt Romney, who took Nevada in 2008, is poised to do so again. Nevada may be friendly to Paul, who resonates with the “don’t bother me with big government crowd,” but Nevada also has a significant Mormon population of 165,498, making that a logical voting bloc for Romney. Today Romney is ahead in the polls by 21 points. However, given its history and that it is a caucus state, Nevada is not a shoo-in for any candidate. There could be another upset as there was in Iowa. But the fun doesn’t end Saturday for political junkies: Maine starts its seven-day caucus on Saturday, running until February 11. Colorado and Minnesota have caucuses on Tuesday, February 7, the same day as the Missouri primary. And for those of you hankering for more rough and tumble debates, as of now you will have to wait till Wednesday, February 22 in Mesa Arizona.

NEVADA CAUCUS RESULTS: **Nevada Caucus Results: GOP Finishes Counting, Mitt Romney Wins Handily** AS VEGAS -- Nevada Republicans have finally finished counting the votes in their Saturday presidential caucuses. As projected, Mitt Romney won handily, finishing with 50 percent. Newt Gingrich was second with 21 percent, edging out Ron Paul who had 19 percent of the vote. Rick Santorum finished last with 10 percent. The results were released early Monday, nearly two days after voters began casting their ballots. Party officials blame the delay on voting discrepancies and their old-fashioned voting method of using handwritten ballots. GOP executive director David Gallagher says representatives from the campaigns approved the counting. Only 32,963 voters participated in the caucuses, far short of the 44,000 Republicans who voted in the 2008 GOP caucuses. Romney also won four years ago, during his first run for the White House.
 * Mitt Romney ||= 16,486 ||= 50.1% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png]] ||
 * Newt Gingrich ||= 6,956 ||= 21.1% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png]] ||
 * Ron Paul ||= 6,175 ||= 18.8% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png]] ||
 * Rick Santorum ||= 3,277 ||= 10% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png]] ||
 * Other ||= 0 ||= 0% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png]] ||

MAINE CAUCUS RESULTS: MAINE CAUCUS RESULTS LOOK EVEN FISHIER Will Mitt Romney's "victory" in the February 11 Maine presidential caucuses be taken away like his phony victory in Iowa? That now seems quite possible. The Maine GOP declared the former Massachusetts Governor the narrow winner of the state's presidential caucus February 11, but Romney's 194-vote margin of victory over Texas Congressman Ron Paul is being whittled away as more results have been reported. Moreover, the state's rural Washington County — along with a few other communities that postponed their caucuses February 11 — will hold the final caucuses Saturday, February 18 and may decide the victor of the non-binding straw poll. But GOP Party Chairman Charlie Webster insists that he will not release updated results from the additional caucuses, even as he comes under increasing fire from his fellow Maine Republicans and national Ron Paul campaign officials. In results in the three counties that have been released to the public, Ron Paul won more votes than were reported in the official results. Webster claims that the missing votes — when all of them are counted -- will favor Romney, and that he is not going to give the press access to updated results. “No one has access,” he told the //Daily Caller// February 15. “There will be no access. We will give it to the committee on March 10. We are not going to release them [the missing votes]. People can whine and complain and plead, but I’m not going to make them public.” Webster admits there were clerical errors in the tally on February 11. “What I tell people is that I’m not going to fire my staff because they make clerical errors,” he told the //Daily Caller//. “My poor staffer is in tears, because people are harassing her.” Washington County, which will caucus February 18, has some powerful party officials who are already complaining about Webster's claim he will not announce updated results. “I think it’s not surprising that there would be very strong objections to the notion that our votes wouldn’t count in Washington County,” Maine Senate President Kevin Raye (R-Perry) told the //Bangor Daily News// February 14. “I’ve made known my position that those votes should count and the [GOP] chair said he would take that request to the state committee.” Raye's district is in Washington County. While Paul campaign officials immediately balked about the Maine GOP Chairman's premature decision to award Romney the victory in advance of the Washington County caucuses, errors in the official vote totals have metastasized as more results have become known. "It’s no longer just about Washington County," the //Christian Science Monitor// reported February 15. "There are towns whose votes went uncounted, and other towns whose caucus dates are yet to come. Plus — and here’s the big finish — the Paul forces are now fully alerted, and if you’ve ever been on their wrong side, you know what that means. Their social media organizations are going to be focused on turning out more caucus attendees than the Washington County GOP has ever seen." Local Maine newspapers have uncovered a number of errors in the official results that appeared to favor Romney over Paul. "While the state GOP says Paul got 37 votes to Romney's 30, Waldo County's spreadsheet shows Paul winning, 71-50," the //Portland Press Herald// reported February 15. The newspaper continued: Waldo County Republican Party Chairman Raymond St. Onge explained that several towns held a "super caucus" in Belfast on Feb. 4 and he faxed those results to state party headquarters a few days later. The problem, St. Onge said, is that those early returns were never added to those from the other Waldo County towns that caucused and reported in on Saturday — leaving his county's overall results incomplete. Then there's the city of Waterville, where 21 people voted for Paul, five went with Romney and three lined up behind Newt Gingrich. Those results don't appear in the state GOP's tally, which shows nothing but goose eggs for the Elm City. The //Bangor Daily News// reported February 15 that failure to count all of the county's caucus votes has led to a resolution to censure Chairman Webster. "Members of the Waldo County GOP Committee voted Tuesday evening to recommend a censure of Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster for his handling of the party’s presidential caucuses. Raymond St. Onge, who leads the Waldo County GOP, said the initial motion was to call for a vote of no confidence in Webster and a recommendation that he step down from his post." The state GOP somehow reversed the caucus results in Waldo County's City of Belfast, according to the Belfast Caucus Chairman Matt McDonald, and then reported no results in the official tally. McDonald spoke via Skype with the Fox network's Cincinnati affiliate: "We caucused and the vote was eight for Ron Paul, seven for Rick Santorum, and five for Mitt Romney and there were two undecideds." McDonald told reporter Ben Swann that he had spoken to the GOP leadership in Augusta, Maine about their early February 4 caucus after no votes had been recorded online in the official results. McDonald told Swann that he was told by party leaders the results the GOP had from Belfast was that Romney — not Paul — had won the city caucus with nine votes, Santorum came in second with five votes and Paul came in third with two votes — close to the opposite of the actual county caucus results.
 * Mitt Romney ||= 2,190 ||= 39.2% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png]] ||
 * Ron Paul ||= 1,996 ||= 35.7% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png]] ||
 * Rick Santorum ||= 989 ||= 17.7% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png]] ||
 * Newt Gingrich ||= 349 ||= 6.2% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png]] ||
 * Other ||= 61 ||= 1.1% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png]] ||

The above voting irregularities do not account for the entire 194-vote margin of victory GOP leaders claimed on behalf of Mitt Romney February 11. Indeed, Webster may be right that when all the results are updated Romney will remain the victor in the state caucuses. It's possible the publicly reported errors and incomplete results may simply be cherry-picked data on behalf of the Ron Paul campaign and that there were equal or greater errors made against the Romney campaign. But McDonald's report on the Belfast results in particular indicates that perhaps Webster's impression of the nature and scope of the errors appears mistaken at best. And the controversy will only heighten without a public update of the results from the GOP leadership after the remaining February 18 caucuses.

COLORADO CAUCUS RESULTS:
 * Rick Santorum ||= 26,614 ||= 40.3% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||
 * Mitt Romney ||= 23,012 ||= 34.9% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||
 * Newt Gingrich ||= 8,445 ||= 12.8% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||
 * Ron Paul ||= 7,759 ||= 11.8% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||
 * Other ||= 197 ||= 0.3% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||

What Santorum Wins Tonight Rick Santorum and his campaign had a very good night Tuesday. Or, if you prefer, Mitt Romney had a very bad night. Romney's loss of the Missouri "beauty contest" primary was no big deal in the larger scheme of things. Losing Minnesota, on the other hand, was worse. And losing Colorado was a disaster. Like a lot of people, I figured that Romney would use results in Nevada, Colorado and Michigan to bridge the gap between the early primaries and Super Tuesday. It didn't happen. So the Santorum camp is cheered by tonight's results. But it's very possible to overstate Santorum's gains. At the end of the night, he added no delegates to his tally: All of these contests were nonbinding. So all of Santorum's achievements tonight were of the more ephemeral variety. This is not to say they aren't significant. To my mind, here's what Santorum gets out of the night. **1. A rationale to carry on in the race** Back when South Carolina was wrapping up its primary, the Santorum campaign could bear the loss by saying, "Three contests, three winners." But with a third-place finish in Florida and a fourth-place finish in Nevada, Santorum was teetering close to the edge of the map, and [|Newt Gingrich was renewing his call for get him to quit the race]. Tonight's results prove that Gingrich's demands were premature. In fact, now it's Gingrich that doesn't look like he has a sound rationale to continue. (Gingrich, of course, is well beyond "sound rationales" by now.) **2. A new "electability" argument** Santorum can take tonight's victories and couple them with recent poll fluctuations to make an argument that he is now the candidate that can beat Barack Obama in November. It's an admittedly thin case, but you can expect him to make it. Begin with the fact that Santorum's central argument is that he can cut a starker contrast with Obama than can Romney and Gingrich for a number of reasons -- the fact that both have supported all or parts of what became "Obamacare" being the pre-eminent one. Next, you can expect Santorum to point to [|the most recent Rasmussen poll], which came back with a surprising result: The survey said that Santorum was the only GOP candidate that would prevail over Obama, by a 45-to-44 margin. Romney, the poll found, would lose 47 to 43. Now, I'd call that Rasmussen result an outlier, but that won't stop Santorum from hyping it. And he'll likely make a big deal about the //Washington Post///ABC poll that suggested Romney would lose a head-to-head matchup with Obama [|by a 51-to-45 margin]. Why shouldn't he? The Romney campaign has positively //flipped out// over that result, [|mounting a frenzied pushback] that's honestly pretty outsized for a February head-to-head poll result. Why would you freak out over that sort of poll result? I'm guessing that it's because it undermines your electability argument at the worst possible time. **3. 'Momentum'** You know, whatever "momentum" is. Chances are, we'll be able to measure momentum in the number of news stories about Santorum that come out between now and Sunday morning. There should be quite a lot -- and it will be nice to get credit for a win the day after, rather then three weeks after it would have mattered, as was the case with Santorum's Iowa win. The political media were prepping a "Santorum surge" narrative even before the evening began -- and that was well before anyone realized that Romney was going to lose Colorado. The double-edged sword here, of course, is that the moment the media start taking you seriously is the moment that scrutiny of your record intensifies. **4. Romney gets put in a bind.** We'll get more stories about his inability to "close the deal." We'll hear about how he badly underperformed tonight, as compared with his 2008 results. And it will be interesting to see if Romney is forced to re-engage. In the past three weeks, Mitt's been crated up, lashed to the roof of the car and driven from stump speech to stump speech. According to the //Washington Post//, [|it's been three weeks since he's taken a question from a voter]. And he's been kept away from the media as well. There's a good reason why that is: " [|the more they learn about Mitt Romney, the less they like him] ." So those are some nice short-term advantages for Santorum. In the long run, however, it won't matter much unless the wins add to his war chest, earn him endorsements and allow his campaign to build out its ability to compete across the nation. Mostly, Santorum needs cash, because right now, cash rules everything around Mitt Romney. And if Santorum's Colorado win has Team Romney reaching for the panic button, remember what happens when that gets pressed: It unleashes an unholy deluge of attack ads across the full spectrum of human consciousness. By and large, Romney held his powder in the states where tonight's competitions were held. That's going to be cited as the reason Romney faltered tonight, and so that's going to change. (Santorum could also really benefit from Gingrich dropping out; he and Newt will probably go halfsies on the non-Paul Not Romney votes in Arizona. But Newt's staying in.)

MINNESOTA CAUCUS RESULTS:


 * Rick Santorum ||= 21,932 ||= 44.9% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||
 * Ron Paul ||= 13,228 ||= 27.1% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||
 * Mitt Romney ||= 8,222 ||= 16.9% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||
 * Newt Gingrich ||= 5,272 ||= 10.8% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||
 * Other ||= 141 ||= 0.3% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||

 MISSOURI PRIMARY RESULTS:
 * Rick Santorum ||= 138,957 ||= 55.2% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||
 * Mitt Romney ||= 63,826 ||= 25.3% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||
 * Ron Paul ||= 30,641 ||= 12.2% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||
 * Other ||= 18,444 ||= 7.3% || [[image:http://ssl.gstatic.com/onebox/minor/elections/us_2012/color_cc6666.png width="40" height="30"]] ||

= Interesting Results from Missouri Primary = The Missouri presidential preference primary held Tuesday won't count toward the final delegate total at the Republican National Convention. The [|Springfield News-Leader] reports the reason is because the Republican National Committee threatened to cut Missouri's delegates in half if a primary was held in early February. The General Assembly refused to change the date when it didn't override a veto by Gov. Jay Nixon last year. A caucus will be held March 17.

The results of Missouri's seemingly meaningless primary are still interesting to voters and pundits.


 * Rick Santorum was declared the winner. [|Reuters stated] after polls closed that the former senator from Pennsylvania had roughly 55 percent of the vote with about half of the precincts showing results. Mitt Romney was second with about 25 percent. Ron Paul was third with 12 percent.


 * Newt Gingrich refused to pay the filing fee to be on the ballot. [|Politico reported] in November it was an intentional drop as Gingrich has instead decided to focus on the March 17 caucus.


 * Despite dropping out of the GOP nominating race, [|four candidates] picked up over 900 votes each. Herman Cain earned 1 percent of the vote. Texas Gov. Rick Perry was even with him. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota had 0.7 percent and Jon Huntsman picked up 0.4 percent. Perry and Cain had over 2,000 votes apiece.


 * The "uncommitted" slot on the Missouri primary ballot received around 4 percent of the vote total.


 * Missouri will have [|25 at-large delegates] to the Republican National Convention in August in Tampa, Fla. The state's convention is June 2 when GOP members will select delegates to the national convention.


 * Every Missouri county will have a caucus beginning at 10 a.m. with a few exceptions. Registered Republican voters can participate in the nomination process.


 * Missouri's primary has been estimated to [|cost taxpayers $7 million] . County caucuses will be funded by the GOP.

=Romney wins Michigan, Arizona primaries = <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Mitt Romney, after fending off Rick Santorum in his home state of Michigan, is fast-approaching the biggest test so far of his volatile front-runner status: next week’s Super Tuesday contests where 419 delegates are up for grabs. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The former Massachusetts governor charges into those 10 contests with a head of steam, after securing back-to-back victories Tuesday night in Michigan and Arizona. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The only stop along the way is the Washington state caucus contest this Saturday. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Romney will have to unleash the force of his campaign juggernaut, as his competitors are still polling strong in key Super Tuesday states. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Rick Santorum, who placed second in both contests on Tuesday, is leading in most recent polls out of Ohio. Newt Gingrich is leading in Georgia, the state he used to represent in Congress. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The two states are the biggest delegate prizes on Super Tuesday. All four Republican presidential candidates have been mapping out a Super Tuesday plan – with some envisioning their own comeback sparkling through the prism of Super Tuesday possibilities. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Gingrich’s plan, he told Fox News, revolves around a victory in Georgia and strong showings in several other March 6 states. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Romney, though, could be looking at an easy pick-up in at least one state. He and Ron Paul are the only candidates on the ballot in Virginia, one of the 10 states holding contests a week from now. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Romney heads into those primaries and caucuses after preventing what could have been a major upset for his campaign in Michigan. His victory over Santorum hardly locks down the race, but at least for the moment it keeps the former Pennsylvania senator’s campaign in check. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"We didn't win by a lot, but we won by enough, and that's all that counts," an upbeat Romney said at his Michigan victory rally late Tuesday night. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The two-for-two performance from Romney helps him reaffirm his front-runner status among the remaining four GOP candidates. In a reflection of the night's results, the candidate kept his victory rally remarks focused on President Obama and his own candidacy, glossing over what has become a bitterly personal contest between him and Santorum in recent weeks. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">He called the election a "time for choosing" in America. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"This time we've got to get the choice right," Romney said. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Romney, in his address, touted his recently unveiled tax reform plan and like the other candidates pledged to open up more U.S. land to oil and gas drilling -- at a time when gas prices are rising and becoming a more frequent topic on the campaign trail. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"Look, when it -- when it comes to the economy, my highest priority will be worrying about your job, not worrying about how to save my own," he said in a crack at the president. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The former Massachusetts governor will take all 29 of Arizona's delegates. With 100 percent of precincts reporting in the state, Romney was leading Santorum 47-27 percent. Gingrich came in third, while Paul placed last in the state. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Unlike in Arizona, though, Romney will end up sharing Michigan's 30 delegates with Santorum in the relatively close race. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Romney received 41 percent of the vote in Michigan, followed by Santorum with 38 percent. Paul placed third in the state, followed by Gingrich. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The Michigan election was not originally expected to be as close as it was. For weeks, Romney seemed poised to walk away with well-timed victories in the two contests Tuesday night. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Romney, while popular in Arizona, has deep roots in Michigan which were expected to play to his advantage. He was born there, his father was governor there and he won the state in the 2008 GOP presidential primary. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">But Santorum's surge, and a decision by the former Pennsylvania senator to compete hard in the state, put Michigan in pure toss-up territory heading into primary day. Santorum's campaign demanded attention as he went from being sidelined at debates earlier in the year to winning the Iowa caucuses by a hair in a late call, and then picking up wins in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado all in one night. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Exit polls showed Romney and Santorum were each leading among distinct categories of voters. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Romney did well in Michigan among those who value electability and experience the most; Santorum fared best among those who most value strong moral character and true conservative values. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Fortunately for Romney, those who think ability to beat Obama is the most important quality made up 33 percent of those polled -- those who wanted someone who is a true conservative made up just 15 percent. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Santorum, though, dominated among evangelical voters, picking up 50 percent of their support. Romney picked up 35 percent. In Michigan, evangelicals made up nearly four in 10 voters on Tuesday. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The closeness of the race helped fuel a tense contest between the two candidates, with each accusing the other of being a false conservative. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Romney also slammed the Santorum campaign Tuesday for putting out a robo-call in Michigan urging Democrats to vote in the GOP race for Santorum. Romney called it a "new low" for his opponent. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">But Santorum defended the robo-call, and at his post-election rally put a positive spin on the night's results. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"A month ago they didn't know who we are, but they do now," Santorum said. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Santorum claimed voters are still getting to know him, but said they'll ultimately want someone like him to "take on" Obama as he blamed the current regulatory environment for hard times in America. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"It's getting harder for people to make ends meet, because we have a government that is crushing us every single day with more taxes, more regulations, and the idea that they know better than you how to run your life," Santorum said. "That ultimately is what this race is about. It goes down to the very nature of who we are as Americans." <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Gingrich and Paul barely competed in either contest being held Tuesday, and focused instead on the Super Tuesday primaries. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">At a rally in Georgia on Tuesday evening, Gingrich said voters need somebody who has "really large ideas for a really large country." <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">In a separate interview on Fox News, Gingrich offered a rough sketch of his comeback strategy. He said he plans to win Georgia, while doing "very well" in a handful of other Super Tuesday states, victories he projected would give him momentum to win subsequent southern contests in Mississippi and Alabama. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Paul, meanwhile, pumped up a crowd of enthusiastic supporters Tuesday evening in Virginia, where he and Romney are the only GOP candidates on the ballot. He stuck to his bread-and-butter message, railing against Washington on the issues of overseas military interventions, over-spending and over-regulation. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Paul, in an interview on Fox News, argued that he can attract independents and Democrats in a general election in a way the other Republican candidates cannot. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"Somebody like Santorum doesn't do that as well," Paul said. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Nationally, Romney entered and exited the night with the delegate lead. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Before Tuesday's contests, The Associated Press count showed Romney with 123 total delegates. Santorum followed with 72. Gingrich had 32 and Paul had 19. <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The eventual nominee will need to win 1,144 delegates. There are 40 delegates up for grabs in Washington's caucuses on Saturday.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">Romney Wins Wyoming Caucuses

<span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Straw-Poll Results Compiled, Released By Wyoming Republican Party
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">By CNN Political Unit <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> <span class="posted" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">POSTED: 9:42 pm EST February 29, 2012

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> <span class="updated" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">UPDATED: 4:24 am EST March 1, 2012

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">**(CNN) --** Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has won the Wyoming caucuses. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> Based on straw-poll results compiled and released by the Wyoming Republican Party, Romney won 39% of the votes cast in straw polls conducted at county-level caucuses. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum came in second with 32% of the straw poll vote, followed by Texas Congressman Ron Paul with 21% and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 8%. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> The delegate count may be closer. Of the 26 delegates at stake, CNN estimates Romney will pick up 10 delegates, while Santorum will take in nine delegates, Paul will receive six, and Gingrich one. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> Throughout the month of February, Wyoming Republicans held caucuses and cast votes in straw polls in 22 of the state's 23 counties. The final county, Sweetwater County, held its caucus Wednesday night. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> A little more than 2,000 people caucused this year in Wyoming, the state with the country's smallest population at just over half a million residents. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> The February caucuses and straw polls are the first step in Wyoming's delegate selection process. County-level delegates to the national convention in Tampa will be chosen at county conventions on March 6-10, and statewide delegates will be selected at the state GOP convention in April. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> Romney is making his second bid for president and was widely expected to win the state, as he carried Wyoming by a large margin during the 2008 Republican primary. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> Sen. John McCain won the state in the general election later that year with 65 percent of the vote over Barack Obama's 33 percent. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> The Wyoming caucuses mark Romney's third victory this week, after the former Massachusetts governor pulled much-needed wins in Arizona and Michigan on Tuesday. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> However, Romney's Michigan win comes with an asterisk. The latest CNN delegate estimate indicates that Romney and Santorum will evenly divide the 30 Michigan delegates at stake in Tuesday's primary. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> Voters next head to the polls in Washington on Saturday and in 10 more states on March 6, also known as Super Tuesday. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> //Copyright CNN 2012//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;"> Read more: [|http://www.thebostonchannel.com/politics/30574702/detail.html#ixzz1o1jDsYn7]

=<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #003399; font-family: Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">WASHINGTON CAUCUS =

Good morning and welcome to a Sunday edition of Northwest News, a daily roundup of what's going on in this corner of the world.

We kick things off with a look at presidential election politics. Saturday was the first chance for the Pacific Northwest to have a say in the GOP primary. A record number of Washington voters -- 50,000 -- [|took part in Saturday's Republican presidential causes], reports Jeff Mapes, a political writer for The Oregonian.

//The caucus results are largely symbolic because the state's delegates will be chosen later.//

//But for Romney, the victory was his third in less than a week, following wins in Michigan and Arizona. And the Romney campaign hopes it signals a growing strength in his candidacy as voters prepare to vote in 10 states on Tuesday.//

//"The voters of Washington have sent a signal that they do not want a Washington insider in the White House," said Romney, referring obliquely to his GOP rivals. "They want a conservative businessman who understands the private sector."//

//Romney also said he was "heartened" to win the caucuses, a recognition that his win here was no sure thing.//

And now for some news out of Alaska, where the 2012 Iditarod began Saturday, [|reports this morning's Anchorage Daily News]. The annual race will last 10 days and cover 975 miles. Sixty-six mushers are taking part in this year's epic event.

//John Baker of Kotzebue will return to defend his title after breaking the Iditarod speed record, finishing just under eight days and 19 hours in 2011. He plans to travel with much of the same team, his big huskies Snickers and Velvet once again running lead.//

//"I don't feel any pressure that I need to win," Baker said, his dogs waiting silently beside his truck as thousands of onlookers pressed the Fourth Avenue fences. "I've trained hard this year, and I want to go out and do the best that the dogs can do."//

//===========================================================================================================//

=Some Republicans root for endgame to primary campaign=

The nominating fight's negative tone and length have some looking forward to the end of it
By Michael O'Brien The nominating fight has stretched two months already has been marked by an especially negative tone. And it’s taken a toll; 40 percent of U.S. adults – and 23 percent of GOP primary voters – said the primary process has given them a less favorable opinion of the Republican primary, according to Monday’s NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. [|All eyes on Ohio for Super Tuesday] “I think if you polled folks, they very much want to have a spokesperson — an identified candidate — sooner rather than later,” said Rep. Steve LaTourette, a Republican who’s backing Romney, and a veteran of Capitol Hill. LaTourette represents a district in northeast Ohio, the consummate swing state which plays host to one of 11 contests on Super Tuesday in which delegates are at stake. The competition is especially fierce in Ohio, where Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are rehashing their fight from Michigan’s primary just a week before. A week later, the tables have been turned for Santorum. He’s now the candidate who must beat expectations and halt Romney’s momentum. Ohio, and, to a lesser extent, Tennessee, have become the proving ground for the Pennsylvania senator on Tuesday. "Politics is a game of expectations — who overperforms, who underperforms ... I still believe a coalescing needs to take place behind an alternative to Romney," said Bob Vander Plaats, an influential social conservative leader from Iowa whose support helped propel Santorum to an ultraslim victory over Romney in the state's Jan. 3 caucuses. "I think what he [Santorum] needs to do is he needs to over-deliver on expectations." [|NBC Political Unit’s Guide to Super Tuesday] In both Ohio and Tennesee, Santorum has witnessed his lead over Romney evaporate after Romney successfully defended his native Michigan, and defeated the former Pennsylvania senator in the state. Super Tuesday might not offer Romney an opportunity to deliver a knockout blow, but, at a minimum, he could put Santorum on the ropes by beating him in one or both states. Team Romney believes that factors within the Republican Party are beginning to move in the former Massachusetts governor’s direction. Romney enjoyed his highest-ever level of support among Republicans compared to past NBC/WSJ polls, and the closing gap in some Super Tuesday states, especially in Ohio, suggests momentum. “There is a feeling that we have had a vigorous debate about the direction we want to take as a party, and how we want to prosecute Obama on the No. 1 issue, which is the economy,” one Romney adviser said. “We are seeing a movement by many voters to consolidate all the different factions behind one candidate, that candidate being Romney.” The GOP logic is that once the nomination fight has wrapped, the eventual nominee will be able to pivot toward President Barack Obama, and reverse the damage to the party’s brand. “Right now there's a media narrative that none of them are up for prime time,” said Jim McLaughlin, a Republican pollster who argued the prolonged primary has actually made Romney a sharper candidate. “The good news for Republicans is once we have a nominee, he'll be able to define himself.” Whether the campaign will reach that inflection point Tuesday night is a matter of campaign mechanics as much as raw votes and momentum. Vander Plaats called Romney the “odds-on” favorite to win the nomination as long as GOP voters fail to rally — quickly — behind Santorum as the lone alternative to Romney. He argued that Gingrich should consider exiting the campaign after Tuesday night if the former House speaker fails to score any significant wins. But the Gingrich campaign has worked intently on winning Georgia, which offers Tuesday’s largest kitty of delegates. And a Gingrich surrogate, Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, argued that recent weeks of focus on Santorum’s social views have illustrated the risk in making the former senator the GOP’s nominee. “We’re not 100 percent sure that Santorum has the right language. You have to be very delicate and diplomatic about the things you say,” he said. “I think there are some things that he has said along the way that weren’t vetted that would come back to haunt him.” And as for Vander Plaats’s wish that Gingrich drop out if he loses Georgia? “I think that he would probably look at that, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Kingston said. If it’s the case that Romney wins Tuesday and none of his challengers exit the campaign, the race for the nomination may shift into a new stage with Romney in more commanding position, all while fighting to keep his momentum going and bleeding his rivals of support and finances. LaTourette said he didn’t expect the campaign to end after Tuesday, but expressed his sense of the sentiment among Republicans on Capitol Hill that the nominating battle should wrap up by no later than Memorial Day. “There comes a point in time when it's too late. I remember Bob Dole and President Clinton. He never got rolling, if you will,” he said. “I would expect Santorum's money to dry up if he doesn't pull out a couple rabbits tomorrow … If he wins it goes on for a little bit, but I really don't see him capturing the hearts and minds of the average Republican voter.”

=Republican Primary Rallies Democrats Behind Obama= By [| Lauren Fox] March 5, 2012 RSS Feed   Print The longer the[| Republican nomination race drags on], the better President Barack Obama looks to Democrats.. A Pew Research Center poll out Monday shows 49 percent of Democrats reported that the more they learned about the __ [|GOP] __ candidates, the more they supported Obama. This is up significantly from December when just 36 percent of Democrats felt that way. [[|See pictures of the 2012 GOP candidates.]] "No one knows where this race is going, and it is difficult to say. But it is pretty clear that this is having the effect of rallying the Democratic base behind Obama," says Carroll Doherty, the associate director of the Pew Research Center. Of course, Democrats polled were already people who overwhelmingly approved of the __ [|job] __ Obama was doing as president, but Doherty says the increase in support for Obama is a promising sign for Democrats, who do not have as compelling a presidential race to win as they did in 2008. [[|Opinion: Ohio Is Do or Die for Rick Santorum on Super Tuesday.]] Among voters at large, Obama still has plenty of work ahead. Just 23 percent say the GOP race has made them more supportive of the president, while 21 percent reported it had the opposite effect. Since the GOP primaries have consumed much of the 2012 __ [|election coverage] __, only 26 percent of Republicans say they feel more confident about the Republican candidates while three in 10 voters overall say their impression of the GOP has actually gotten worse. Just 12 percent of voters said their view of the GOP had improved as they learned more about the GOP candidates. The most recent Pew poll was conducted from March 1 to March 4 and included more than 1,000 voters

__//**Super Tuesday voters put imprint on GOP race**//__ By THOMAS BEAUMONT, Associated Press – 2 hours ago ATLANTA (AP) — Mitt Romney is angling to solidify his front-runner status and Rick Santorum to keep it a two-man race as voters in 10 states put Super Tuesday's imprint on the Republican presidential contest. Newt Gingrich just hopes to keep his struggling campaign alive with a strong showing in Georgia. With Ohio looming large in the Super Tuesday lineup, textbook editor Heather Froelich outside Columbus gave her vote to Romney, saying: "He understands the economy." Enthusiasm was in short supply among some of those casting ballots. Gingrich got a reluctant vote from Tricia Tetrault, in Edmond, Okla., where she explained her decision this way: "Ronald Reagan wasn't available any more. What can I say?" Santorum got the support of contractor Matt Howells in suburban Cleveland, but Howells didn't expect his ballot would count for much. "I really don't see a Republican winning the White House," he said. With 419 delegates at stake around the country, Tuesday's voting represents a sizable slice of the 1,144 needed to nail down the GOP nomination. Romney, who turned back Santorum in a close contest in Michigan last week, hoped to continue his winning trend. He has won four consecutive contests, including Saturday's Washington caucuses. The GOP front-runner, trying to keep his focus on President Barack Obama, used a speech Tuesday before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to argue he'd be more effective at containing Iran's nuclear ambitions. Santorum and Gingrich, too, addressed the committee and faulted the president's record on Iran and the Mideast. The president, for his part, showed he had no intention of ceding the spotlight to his GOP challengers: He scheduled his first full news conference of the year for Tuesday afternoon. The president was announcing a new program to address the housing crisis, part of his ongoing effort to show he's working aggressively to help the economy recover. Priorities USA Action, a super PAC backing the president, trained its criticism solely on Romney, issuing a "Super Tuesday memo" arguing that the front-runner's "agenda for the wealthy" was hurting him with those who are not. After falling behind Santorum in Ohio last month, Romney closed the gap in recent days, with polls showing the race a dead heat on the eve of the primary. It's a familiar trend for Romney, whose superior fundraising and turnout operation have helped him turn deficits in Florida and Michigan into triumphs. As the polls opened, a super PAC that supports Romney bought time for television commercials in Illinois and Louisiana, which hold primaries later in the month. The group had previously begun advertising in next week's primary states of Mississippi and Alabama. Romney, a former venture capital executive, kept his campaign's focus on the economy in a final sprint across Ohio, where he and Santorum are competing most fiercely. "Other people in this race have debated about the economy, they've read about the economy, they've talked about it in subcommittee hearings," Romney said of his opponents. "But I've actually been in it. I've worked in business and I understand what it takes to get a business successful and to thrive." The New Englander in the race, Romney is expected to do well in the Vermont and Massachusetts primaries. He is also poised to win the Virginia primary. Besides Ohio, Santorum is competing most aggressively in primaries in Oklahoma and Tennessee, where the GOP's conservative hue matches the strict social conservative's evangelical appeal. He was leading narrowly in Tennessee, where polls showed Gingrich and Romney closing. Despite signs that Gingrich planned to remain in the race, Santorum urged voters in Ohio to see it as increasingly a two-candidate fight. "I'm excited that we're here with the opportunity of winning states on Super Tuesday ... and, hopefully, eventually, having the opportunity to go one on one at the end of this thing and see where this race really falls out," Santorum told supporters in Miamisville, Ohio. "And when we do, we'll win." Gingrich has won only one state — the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary — and was projected to win only Georgia out of the 10 states voting Tuesday. He began advertising in Tennessee on Monday, putting down just $35,000 for television time, a small purchase. Yet, Gingrich planned to campaign Tuesday in Alabama, which holds its primary March 13, even before the voting was finished in Georgia. Ads for Gingrich were expected to begin airing in Alabama and Mississippi, which holds its primary on the same day, and he will visit both Southern states later in the week. He was then heading to Kansas, which holds its caucuses Saturday. Still, Gingrich tried to cast a likely win in Georgia as a sign of momentum, comparing it to Romney's narrow win in his native Michigan over Santorum last week. At a breakfast meeting of a suburban Atlanta chamber of commerce, Gingrich criticized his rivals as mere managers, rather than leaders of the change he recommends. "The truth is I have opponents who are, in a normal period, adequate," he told more than 100 in Gwinnett, Ga. "But they don't have anything on the scale of change I just described to you." At a polling place in Fayetteville, Ga., businessman Glenn Valencia sized up Gingrich as a hometown guy with great intellect but gave his vote nonetheless to Romney, saying Gingrich had "a lot of baggage" and might not hold up well against Obama. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was focusing on Tuesday's caucuses in Alaska, Idaho and North Dakota. Despite the big chunk of votes being cast Tuesday, the race was expected to continue further into March because delegates are apportioned based on vote percentage and the candidates are focusing on different regions of the country.

[|GOP Candidates]

=Turnout sparse as Virginians cast GOP primary ballots=

Only former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) qualified for the Virginia ballot, robbing the contest of much of the suspense and competitiveness that will prevail in other states on Super Tuesday. Romney is expected to win by a wide margin. Loudoun County registrar Judy Brown said she was originally anticipating a turnout of about 10 percent, but by noon, Loudoun wasn’t on track to meet that projection. “We don’t have any big numbers to report. We had one precinct call in a little while ago to say that they’d only had two people come through,” she said. Brown said the two-man field might be discouraging some voters from heading to the polls. “People who are paying attention to the reports in the news media figure there’s no sense in going out,” Brown said. “It’s unfortunate.” In the 2008 presidential primary, Loudoun saw a 32 percent turnout rate county-wide, Brown said. Of the roughly 52,000 voters who came to the polls that year, about 35,000 were Democrats, she added; only 17,000 Republicans cast ballots. “But I’m not even sure we’re going to make 17,000 this time, to be honest,” she said. In Richmond, protesters expected to greet Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, when they voted for Romney on Tuesday morning at a historic train station. But the McDonnells moved up their voting time by nearly two hours, avoiding demonstrators who oppose legislation pending in the General Assembly that they say chips away at abortion rights. He said his schedule changed, and that the switch had nothing to do with the protesters. McDonnell said he spoke to Romney last week after his win in Michigan. He expects Romney to have a successful day, winning in Idaho, Massachusetts and Virginia, and being competitive in Ohio and Georgia. “I believe he’s the right leader at the right time to fix some of the problems that ail our great country,’’ McDonnell told reporters after he voted. “More and more it’s becoming clear that Mitt Romney is the best candidate for the Republican party. ... More and more conservative leaders are coming out and saying we’ve got to get this done.” McDonnell and his wife were the seventh and eighth people to vote at the Main Street Station, in a commercial strip just a few blocks down from the Executive Mansion. Election officials say 1,037 people are registered to vote at the precinct, though no one voted in the next hour. McDonnell said he was “disappointed” by the low turnout in Virginia, where ex-senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) and former speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) failed to qualify for the ballot. Virginia Republicans use primary voter lists to identity potential GOP voters for fall elections. “If we had four candidates it would certainly be more competitive,’’ McDonnell said. But he said the Republican nominee would still be competitive in Virginia against President Obama, who won the state in 2008. After the McDonnells left, about a dozen protesters gathered outside the building. They carried hand-made signs that said “Hi. I’m Bob McDonnell. I’m not a doctor but I play one in the Virginia State House.’’ Virginia has been in the national spotlight in recent weeks for some of its antiabortion legislation. Several bills have died during the 60-day session — including those that sought to define a fertilized egg as a person, deny state-funded abortions to poor women with grossly deformed fetuses and ban abortions after 20 weeks. But at least one — requiring women to get an ultrasound before an abortion — is on McDonnell’s desk after being amended to no longer mandate a transvaginal procedure. He has until the end of the week to sign the bill. Frances Broaddus-Crutchfield of Powhatan said she was disappointed but not surprised that McDonnell voted earlier than expected. “I don’t think he wants to face us,’’ she said. Donna Slinger of Hampton drove to Richmond on Tuesday morning after participating in two previous abortion rights protests, including one Saturday that resulted in 30 arrests. “We wanted to make our presence known to him,’’ she said. “I think he’s running from us.’’ Paul, meanwhile, seemed to be having a banner morning at the polling station at Retreat Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond, in a neighborhood just west of downtown known as The Fan. Just three voters were there between 7:30 and 8 a.m., and all three went for the Texas congressman. Two were genuine supporters. The third was a Democrat who thinks Paul would be easier for Obama to defeat than Romney. “Hey, Virginia’s an open primary,” said the Democrat, who declined to give her name. “I love it.” Mary Lou Trache, a paralegal who gave her age as “over 60,” said she voted for Paul because she likes his stance on domestic issues, including bringing down the national debt. “I really admire his character and steadfastness,” she said. “I like [that] what brought him into politics was going off the gold standard.” Trache doesn’t actually think Paul has a chance to win the nomination, but she wanted to register her unhappiness with Romney. “He doesn’t seem as authentic a person,” she said. Jonathan Oliver, a 25-year-old civil engineer who also voted for Paul at the hospital, said he’d been wavering between Paul and former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) until he saw the ballot and realized Santorum wasn’t on it. He happily went for Paul, who impressed Oliver in debates by answering questions in a more straightforward manner than other Republicans. “He just doesn’t seem to get caught up in the politicking stuff,” Oliver said. “I just can’t stand Romney or Gingrich, frankly.” Super Tuesday also got off to a slow start in eastern Loudoun, with several precincts reporting fewer than 40 ballots cast by 9 a.m. At Newton-Lee Elementary in Ashburn, chief election officer Elizabeth Below said only one voter came through the quiet gymnasium in the first hour after the polls opened. “The turnout is very poor. They told us to expect six to 10 percent, but we’ve barely hit 1 percent,” she said. She hoped voters would arrive in greater numbers in the afternoon and evening, she said. Delores Thiel of Ashburn was one of the few voters who had cast a ballot at Newton-Lee. She said she was motivated to come to the polls because “this year, of all years, it’s extremely important to have the best candidate in place to go up against Obama and win.” Thiel believes Romney is that best candidate, largely because of his success as a businessman. Fiscal responsibility and smaller government are critical issues, she said. “We’ve had so much overspending. We really need to get that under control,” Thiel said. “Romney’s business sense is the key. He can establish the infrastructure of a successful business plan.” If Romney were to win, Thiel believes the changes he’d bring to the presidency would help strengthen the economy, create jobs and cut wasteful spending. “We need to go back to the basics,” she said. For Tom Nevin of Ashburn, the struggling economy was the primary motivation that brought him to the polls to support Romney. Nevin would have voted for former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), had Gingrich been on the ballot, “but you can’t lose either way,” Nevin said, adding that he believes both Gingrich and Romney display “consistency in leadership.” (Though Gingrich and his wife, Callista, live in Northern Virginia now, NBC News reports that they will not vote in Tuesday’s primary, because they did not want to support Romney or Paul.) Nevin likes Romney’s background as a businessman, and believes his knowledge and experience would be put to good use as the country works to recover from its economic woes, Nevin said. If Romney were to win, “I think we’ll have a leader in the White House who will promote a business-friendly environment, and reward those who work hard,” Nevin said. At Battlefield High School in Gainesville, voters turned out in spurts before many headed for a morning commute. Nearby Bull Run Middle School was slow all morning, observers there said, and during one 15-minute window around 9 a.m., no one entered the school’s doors to cast a ballot. Ken Hoyt, 56, an insurance agency manager from Gainesville, said he backed Romney because “we need someone in there who is a good businessman.” Hoyt said that while he would like to see Romney gain the nomination, he faces potential challenges — including his Mormon faith. “Religion hurts him a little bit,” he said. Hoyt also thinks some conservatives will not look favorably on Romney’s health-care plan when he was governor of Massachusetts. “Massachusetts is a whole different thing than the whole United States,” he said, adding that the tone of the GOP primary has hurt the party. “I think the Republicans have been stupid, as tough as they’ve been against each other.” Thomas Pershing, a 32-year-old government analyst from Catharpin, said Paul “doesn’t have a chance” to win Virginia but voted for him because of flaws he sees in Romney. “He doesn’t identify with the majority of Americans,” Pershing said of Romney, because of his wealth and other factors. “I wanted to put in a protest vote.”

=Obama 'wins' Ohio GOP primary= — What happens in Ohio politics never stays in Ohio, and there are two story lines here on Super Tuesday. There is, first, the Republican presidential primary fight. [|Rick Santorum] has to win Ohio to keep his candidacy alive. A [|Mitt Romney] triumph would, at last, turn him into the "inevitable" Republican nominee. The second narrative involves the struggle for a state that [|Republicans] must take in November to have any chance of defeating President [|Barack Obama]. The problem for Republicans is that the two story lines are not coming together. Ideally, the arguments candidates make during key state primaries are also a case for why voters should back them come election time. This is what happened here — and also in states such as Indiana and North Carolina — during the epic fight for the Democratic presidential nomination between Obama and [|Hillary Clinton] in 2008. Obama lost Ohio to Clinton, but the voters he needed against her in the white working class and middle class were the people he eventually had to get to beat [|John McCain], his Republican opponent in the general election. Obama's heavy investment here required him to make nice toward voters who were most resistant to him, paid off when Ohio backed Obama in the fall. But this year, Romney is being forced to do precisely the opposite: He is directing most of his attention to the GOP's conservative base, which would never, ever support Obama. Santorum's challenge is pushing Romney to tilt his argument toward ideological issues that appeal to the right and away from kitchen-table issues that move practically minded voters in places like Parma, a proud working-class bastion on the outskirts of Cleveland. Kevin DeWine, Ohio's Republican state chairman, knows what the right formula is. "The eventual nominee would do well to hone his economic message in the Ohio primary," DeWine said in an interview. What DeWine is looking for is not a philosophical disquisition, but "a mainstream Chillicothe, Ohio, kind of conversation." He is far too loyal a Republican to say so, but thus far the campaign seems to have been more about Santorum's record on earmarks than about restoring middle-class living standards. All this comes as a relief to [|Democrats] who were on their heels less than two years ago. Republicans swept the state in 2010, electing [|John Kasich] as governor over incumbent [|Ted Strickland]. Substantial Democratic defections in these suburbs south of Cleveland were an important part of the story. "They're blue-collar retirees and white working-class Democrats," said Chris Redfern, the Democratic state chairman, "but Democrats who, if ignored, will dip their toe into the water of the alternative." A lot has happened since 2010. Kasich's effort to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights led to last November's referendum donnybrook over what was known as Issue 2. Responding to a massive mobilization by the unions, Ohioans repealed the law and delivered a sharp rebuke to Kasich. John Thomas, a former Parma city councilman who thinks of himself as a Reagan Democrat, said the battle reminded not only teachers and firefighters but also workers in Parma's auto plants and the construction trades why they weren't Republicans. Parma gave only about half of its votes to Strickland in 2010, a steep drop from four years earlier, but cast nearly two-thirds of its ballots against Issue 2. The success of the auto bailout has also been vital to Obama's political recovery in a state that is one of the country's most important car manufacturing centers. Parma Mayor Tim DeGeeter, an up-and-coming 42-year-old former state legislator who took office in January, said the auto rescue should be central to the fall campaign. "What President Obama needs to do is constantly remind the voters that because of the political risks he took, he saved GM." Referring to rising employment at his city's [|General Motors] plant, DeGeeter added: "If it had been Mitt Romney or others in the GOP, that plant would be mothballed right now." Local Democrats also took heart in Obama's rousing assault on Republican economics before the United Auto Workers union last week. Marty Vittardi, the Parma area's clerk of courts and longtime party activist, pronounced it an antidote for Democratic frustration over the president's "lack of aggressiveness" in his first two years. "He never showed that kind of fire," Vittardi said. "Now, he has." November is a political lifetime away. Nonetheless, it would not be out of place to declare that the winner of this year's Ohio Republican primary is — Barack Obama.
 * [[image:http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2012-03/68593823.jpg width="580" height="398" caption="Mitt Romney Campaigns In Ohio Day After Michigan And Arizona Primary"]] ||

=[|New Polls: Dead heat in Ohio]=

According to an [|American Research Group survey], 35% of likely Ohio Republican primary voters say they are backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, with 28% supporting former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. Romney's seven point advantage is just within the survey's sampling error, meaning it's all knotted up. The poll indicates that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has the backing of 18% of likely primary voters, with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas at 13%. Meanwhile, according to a [|Suffolk University poll] also released Monday, Santorum is at 37%, with Romney at 33%, Gingrich at 16% and Paul at 8%. Santorum's advantage is also within the poll's sampling error. A [|Quinnipiac University survey] released earlier Monday indicates that 34% of likely Buckeye State GOP primary voters are backing Romney, who's making his second bid for the nomination, with 31% supporting Santorum of Pennsylvania. Romney's three point advantage is within the poll's sampling error, meaning it's basically a dead heat. Fifteen percent are backing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with 12% supporting Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Sixty-three delegates are up for grabs Tuesday in Ohio, one of 10 states to hold contests on Super Tuesday. While more delegates are up for grabs in Georgia, Ohio is arguably the most crucial of the states holding a Super Tuesday contest because of its status as a major general election battleground. The American Research Group poll was conducted March 3-4, with 600 likely GOP primary voters in Ohio questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points. The Suffolk University poll was also conducted Saturday and Sunday with 500 likely Republican primary voters in the Buckeye state questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
 * (CNN)** - One day before the state joins nine others in holding Super Tuesday GOP presidential nomination contests, two new polls out Monday afternoon indicate it's all tied up.

=Ohio's Republican primary: what does a Super Tuesday win mean?=

To outsiders, the political class's obsession with [|Ohio] must seem strange indeed: it's just one of those squarish states toward the middle of the country, best-known for being ordinary. ([|Sherwood Anderson's Winesberg, Ohio] is embedded in American literature because of Anderson's success in showing how the monotony of being so wretchedly normal isolates us and perverts our ability to communicate. Insert your own [|Rick Santorum] joke here.) The very normalcy of Ohio, combined with some statistical superstition, is what makes it special. For those of you who will be watching tonight's returns with a drink in your hand and a desire to see double by the close of the polls, take a swig every time you hear that no Republican presidential candidate has won the office without winning Ohio. (Please have a designated driver.) That bit of trivia is meaningful, of course, only in so far as there are reasons //why// Ohio has been such a bellwether – and this is where its representativeness comes in. Demographically, Ohio is a completest patchwork of American socio-economic clusters. It has industry and agriculture, urban areas and suburban sprawl, high-tech and low-tech employers. It is whiter than the [|United States] as whole – largely because of a lower-than-average Hispanic population – but its age distribution mirrors that of the country and average income is on the dot. Another measure that nicely symbolized Ohio is that it tracks national trends: in 1995, the largest employer in Ohio was General Motors. In 2011, it was Walmart. Ohio was hit slightly harder by the economic downturn, with a marginally higher unemployment rate and a more significant foreclosure rate – but it has recently seen economic improvements that make it a [|hopeful outlier] in the quest for recovery. If you want to participate even more fully in that [|Super Tuesday] drinking game, look to take a sip every time someone says "microcosm" in reference to the state. Does that mean that Ohio's results will help predict the outcome of the 2012 general election? Not really. It's unclear if the results will even have a significant impact on the GOP primary. With Santorum and Romney neck-and-neck in the polls, Ohio's delegate prize (66, the second largest awarded tonight) appears to be decisive, but the delegates will be doled out proportionally, so the rewards will be neck-and-neck as well … and [|Santorum's failure] to file the paperwork allowing him to receive delegates in all 16 states prevents any sweep he might have had hope for. What's more – and more important – [|the math has begun to make Santorum's chances to actually wrest the nomination away from Romney a logical impossibility]. ABC News has [|an analysis that puts it baldly]: Santorum can get to the magic delegate number of 1,144 //only// if he wins every remaining primary (including those today) with over 50% of the votes state-wide //and// in each congressional district. Barring an act of God (undoubtedly Santorum's ultimate strategy), this simply will not happen. No matter how successful he turns out to be in states that are demographically friendly to him, or among the party's base – or in Ohio! – Santorum would have to win in states that show no sign of swinging his way, such as Utah and New Jersey. Still, it's worth paying attention to the Buckeye State. Who wins which county (the units that a state breaks down into, after the manner of the United States) may suggest the mood and preferences of the demographic blocks that make up the national electorate: if, for instance, Santorum does not pull out significant wins in blue-collar areas with large evangelical populations, we will see evidence that the culture wars are a losing proposition for the GOP. A minor cautionary note: Santorum vote totals could be affected by Democrats voting in the open primary with the intent of throwing a roadblock in Romney's path; I personally doubt that will be a significant factor. Romney's path isn't going to be smooth, anyway. Though Santorum can't get to 1,144 delegates himself, he and Newt Gingrich, if they both stay in the race, //can// keep Romney from getting there. Which, from a political journalist's standpoint is awesome: we won't have to write about things that are more complicated than an electoral horse race, like Iran and the eurozone crisis. It is also, obviously, awesome for Democrats. Already, Republican leaders (and [|Barbara Bush!]) are bemoaning what the increasingly ugly contest is doing for the party as a whole, and polls [|show (pdf)] these concerns are valid: 40% of all voters say the primaries have made them feel less favorable about the GOP. I am just grateful for the work.


 * //__Super Tuesday Results__//**







Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney looks at his ballot with his wife, Ann, as he votes in the Massachusetts primary at the Beech Street Senior Center in Belmont. ( Gerald Herbert / Associated Press / March 6, 2012 ||
 * [[image:http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2012-03/237259100-06165412.jpg width="580" height="387" caption="Mitt Romney voting in Massachusetts" link="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-super-tuesday-pictures,0,3416475.photogallery"]]

By Mark Z. Barabak March 6, 2012, 4:53 p.m.

Reporting from Columbus, Ohio— [|Mitt Romney] jumped out to Super Tuesday victories in Virginia and Vermont, extending his winning streak as he sought to fasten his grip on the [|GOP] nomination by dominating the single biggest day of balloting in the volatile primary season.

Former House Speaker [|Newt Gingrich] was projected as the winner in Georgia, the state he represented for years in Congress and where he retreated for a last stand to resurrect his sagging campaign.

“Thank you Georgia!” Gingrich tweeted soon after the [|television networks] projected his victory. “It is gratifying to win my home state so decisively to launch our March Momentum.”

All three states were performing as expected in early returns, rewarding candidates in their home regions and, in the case of Virginia, where former Massachusetts Gov. Romney faced no serious opposition.

He seemed assured of another win in his home state, where Romney voted Tuesday evening in the [|Boston] suburbs.

In all, voters in 10 states were casting ballots in Super Tuesday contests that promised to either push Romney beyond the reach of rivals, or stoke [|Rick Santorum]'s challenge and reopen the question why Republican voters won't embrace the party's national front-runner.

The most crucial test was here in Ohio, a November battleground, where Romney and the former Pennsylvania senator devoted the bulk of their time and resources. Both candidates focused on the economy in a Rust Belt state that hurt long before the rest of the country sunk into deep recession, then emerged to a fitful recovery.

Santorum touted his roots across the border in a Pennsylvania steel town, saying he would seek to strengthen the economy by restoring America's manufacturing might. Romney unveiled a new slogan -- ”more jobs, less debt, smaller government” -- and jabbed at Santorum's digression into subjects like contraception and the separation of church and state.

“During this campaign there has been discussion about all sorts of issues,” Romney said in Canton. “I keep bringing it back to more jobs, less debt and smaller government. That's what my campaign is about.”

Beyond Ohio, Santorum hoped to snap Romney's weeklong winning streak by taking contests in Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul was hoping for his first victories in one of three caucus states, North Dakota, Idaho or Alaska. (Voters in Wyoming were also caucusing, the first step in a convoluted delegate-selection process that goes on for weeks.)

Overall 437 delegates were at stake Tuesday, considerably more than the 12 previous contests combined and just more than a third of the 1,144 needed to secure the GOP nomination.

Even before the first ballots were cast, Romney was assured a victory in the delegate count, thanks in part to the organizational failings of his main rivals.

Paul was the only Republican other than Romney to qualify for the ballot in Virginia, one of the larger states voting Tuesday and another target for both political parties in November. Santorum also forfeited more than a dozen Ohio delegates by failing to file complete slates in several congressional districts, including the one in which he held his election night party.

The shortfall underscored the advantage that Romney has maintained throughout the ups and downs of the turbulent nominating fight: his big advantage in financial and organizational capabilities.

Both were brought to bear on Super Tuesday. Repeating a pattern seen throughout the contest, Romney vastly outspent Santorum on the television airwaves, strafing his chief rival with a relentless barrage of negative advertising.

Santorum sought to make Romney's spending and attack ads an issue -- as Gingrich had in earlier states -- but most voters did not seem as upset.

Party leaders and other insiders have grown increasingly concerned, however, about the toll the contentious nominating fight has taken on the GOP and its candidates, reflected in polls showing gains by President Obama and increasingly sour views of the Republican field. That played to Romney's benefit, as he continued to rack up endorsements from within the party establishment in recent days.

With a string of three wins -- in Arizona, Michigan and Washington state -- Romney increasingly sought to project an air of inevitability, hoping to hasten a close to the contest. Strategists for Romney, knowing he was sure to win the delegate count, insisted that was the chief arbiter of success Tuesday.

“More important than winning this state or that state is achieving the requisite number of delegates to achieve the nomination,” Eric Ferhnstrom, a Romney advisor, told reporters Monday as the candidate flew between stops in Georgia and Ohio. “That’s what our focus is.”

But there were many ways to slice Tuesday's results and thus many ways for a candidate to claim victory and justify their continued campaigning, even if it becomes mathematically impossible for anyone but Romney to win the nomination outright.

So the race continues. Next up are caucuses Saturday in Kansas and, next Tuesday, primaries in Alabama and Mississippi.

=Paul still winless after Super Tuesday=

[|RON PAUL]


March 07, 2012 | By Alyssa McLendon, CNN Tuesday night was super to some degree for every Republican presidential candidate except Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Supporters crossed their fingers that Paul would get his first win in North Dakota, only to lose to former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. But Paul said he doesn't see Tuesday's outcome as definitive. "Nobody's going to clinch the election today," Paul told CNN on Tuesday afternoon before elections results came in. "You get (Newt) Gingrich winning some states, Santorum winning some states, Ron Paul winning some states, and sorting all this delegates selection process, I think we have a little bit of time left before you declare anybody a winner."
 * [[image:http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120307120337-st-ron-paul-speech-story-body.jpg]]

On his third run for the presidency, Paul has the fewest delegates of the remaining candidates so far in this race. But he said he'll continue as long as he keeps picking up delegates. "We want a lot more delegates," Paul told CNN's John King. "We haven't even counted the delegates for the delegate process that has been started in the last couple of months, won't finish for another two months. So we don't know exactly what we'll do. So we've got to count the delegates before we make any decisions." What we learned from Super Tuesday Paul stuck to his message in a speech Tuesday afternoon to supporters in Fargo, North Dakota, before votes were counted. He used his platform to encourage voters to make a statement about the causes he has championed such as cutting federal spending, property rights and what he calls "sensible foreign policy." Paul's campaign strategy has focused on states that assign their delegates proportionally as well as on states that hold caucuses. Romney wins six states; Santorum wins conservatives Paul has concentrated on low-profile states the other Republican candidates all but ignore. He stayed away from the fiercely contested battlegrounds of Michigan and Ohio and directed his Super Tuesday energy toward Alaska, Idaho and North Dakota. Paul paid little attention to Missouri, a nonbinding primary, and runs a frugal campaign that doesn't act "like the government and spend money we don't have." Most of the media attention has focused on the volatile campaigns of the other three GOP candidates, but Paul has been consistent. Get the latest news on Paul's campaign He hasn't had a victory yet, but he has placed second in eight states so far: Idaho, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

Paul and Romney were the only two candidates on the Virginia ballot. Romney won the state, but Paul, as he has consistently, won the younger vote. "In almost every state, I think, essentially every state, I always win between the 18- and 30-year-olds. I always win that," Paul told CNN's Piers Morgan. "If they're thinking about the future, or the fall election, I mean young people are very, very important." Young people have been instrumental to Paul's campaign in terms of votes and volunteers. His young supporters are passionate, enthusiastic and dedicated and have kept up Paul's momentum, especially on college campuses.

__//**[|GOP Delegate Tracker]**//__