Mitt Romney boosted by primary sweep ahead of critical Super Tuesday vote

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/29/mitt-romney-primary-sweep-critical-super-tuesday

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A reinvigorated Mitt Romney began campaigning Wednesday ahead of Super Tuesday, the next and most intensive phase of the Republican nomination race.

Ten states will vote on March 6, but the main battleground will be Ohio, where Romney arrived buoyed by desperately-needed wins over challenger Rick Santorum in Michigan and Arizona the night before.

The danger for Romney is that Super Tuesday will not be decisive as it was for fellow Republican John McCain in 2008. If he cannot win Ohio and break away from the pack, the race will likely drag on for months, which the party is increasingly worried will sap energy and cash, damaging its chances for the White House in November.

The race, unlike the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton contest in 2008 that energised the Democratic party, appears to be hurting Republicans. Exit polls from Michigan showed voters to be unenthusiastic about any of the choices available to them. Fewer than half the voters, 45%, said they felt strongly about the candidate they were backing.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican party, interviewed by Politico, maintained that the party would benefit from the publicity and the eventual candidate would emerge hardened by the experience. "I'm not nervous about this at all. I think the drama and the tough primary is a good thing for us," he said.

But McCain's political strategist in 2008, Steve Schmidt, told MSNBC that Democratic party voters in 2008 liked both Obama and Clinton and would have been happy with either. "The longer this goes on, Republican voters are saying, 'We don't like any of them. We want somebody new in the race.' And that new person isn't going to appear in the race."

In a sign that the campaign is benefiting the opposition, Democrats jumped on two gaffes by Romney during the Michigan campaign in which he casually highlighted his enormous wealth. On Friday, he revealed his wife had two Cadillacs and, when asked about Nascar racing, he responded that he was not a big fan but he knew the team owners. On Wednesday, the Democratic party posted a web video highlighting these quotes and portraying him as out of touch.

Romney is favourite to take at least four of the Super Tuesday states: Massachusetts, Vermont, Idaho and Virgina. But Santorum, who came within 3% of Romney in Michigan, is well ahead in the polls in Ohio, a state whose demographics suit him better than Michigan. He is also ahead in Tennessee, where he campaigned Wednesday, and Oklahoma.

Santorum played down Romney's Michigan win. "This was going to be Romney's night. The question was going to be how big. And it wasn't very big. It is a two-person race right now. We are doing excellently," he said.

Romney, in his victory speech, basically retorted that a win is a win. "We didn't win by a lot but we won by enough and that's what counts," he said. The win was crucial in order to avert the disaster of losing his home state.

Of the other two candidates, Newt Gingrich is ahead in the polls in one of the Super Tuesday states, Georgia, his home state, while Ron Paul is still searching for that elusive first win.

Ohio is already being subjected to the biggest ad blitz since the Florida primary last month. Romney and the super political action committees (Pacs) that support him have already bought up more than $3m in advertising space.

In Michigan, with all the votes counted, Romney took 41%, Santorum 38%, Paul 12% and Gingrich 6.5%. In Arizona, Romney took 47%, Santorum 27%, Gingrich 16% and Paul 8%.

Exit polls showed a party that is deeply divided. Romney won mainly older and better-off voters while Santorum did better among working-class voters, evangelicals and those who describe themselves as very conservative.

In an unusual ploy, Santorum on Monday authorised the use of robo-calls urging Democrats, who are allowed to vote in Michigan's Republican primary under the state's quirky election rules, to vote against Romney. Romney described this as a low point in the campaign and prominent supporters Wednesday called on Santorum "not to team up with the Democrats in future Republican contests".

As a tactic, it almost worked for Santorum. One in 10 voters were Democrats, voting by 3 to 1 against Romney. Santorum's move came after Democratic activists urged members to vote against Romney to throw the Republican race into disarray.

With Romney unable to seal the nomination this far into the race, each candidate is out to accumulate as many delegates as possible to take to the party convention in Tampa, Florida, in August where the presidential nominee will be formally chosen.

Romney won all 29 delegates at stake in Arizona on Tuesday night. Michigan has 30 delegates but, unlike Arizona's winner-takes-all approach, these are divided on a proportional basis. So far, Romney and Santorum have been awarded 11 each, with eight remaning to be allocated.

The Associated Press, which keeps a running total, has Romney with 163 delegates, Santorum 83, Gingrich 32 and Paul 19, all a long way from the 1,144 needed to win. On Super Tuesday, 419 delegates are up for grabs.

A further 40 delegates are at stake in Washington state, which holds its caucuses on Saturday. Paul began airing ads in Washington Wednesday and is also targeting one of the Super Tuesday states, Vermont.