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Cleveland
Plain Dealer...
Mitt Romney
wins Michigan and Arizona, and race now heads to Ohio
Mitt Romney pulled off a hard-fought win in Michigan and easily won
Arizona on Tuesday, providing momentum he hopes will extend next week
to Super Tuesday, when the Republican presidential nominating race
reaches Ohio.
The former Massachusetts governor, who grew up in Michigan, will waste
no time before cozying up to Buckeye State voters. He plans to appear
at an event this morning at a Toledo factory, then head to Capital
University in Bexley, near Columbus, where he will hold a town hall
meeting.
Rick Santorum, who took a brief detour from the Michigan trail Tuesday
with a Northwest Ohio rally in Perrysburg, will return no later than
Friday, when he will visit Chillicothe High School and speak at the
Lake County GOP’s Lincoln Day dinner in Eastlake. On Saturday, he and
former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are expected to attend a
Lincoln-Reagan Day dinner in Bowling Green. Santorum is scheduled to
campaign today in Tennessee.
At stake in Tuesday’s contests were 29 delegates in Arizona and 30 in
Michigan. Arizona’s rules give Romney all the delegates, whereas
Michigan awards delegates proportionally.
Romney used his televised victory speech in Novi, Mich., to criticize
President Barack Obama on taxes, health care, energy policy and
regulation. He promised to talk every day about “more jobs, less debt
and smaller government.”
“Americans are crying out for more jobs, less debt, and smaller
government -- and I will deliver,” Romney said. “You know, a lot of
people say that if you’re running for office, you can’t speak honestly
with the American people. Well, I did -- and I will -- because this is
a decisive moment that requires real leadership.”
With 80 percent of the vote counted, Romney was winning 41 percent of
Michigan’s popular vote and was almost certain to score the biggest
share of the state’s delegates. Santorum was projected to win 38
percent of Michigan’s popular vote.
Gingrich, who did not campaign in Michigan, was trailing by double
digits, behind Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.
Recent polls favor Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania,
to win Ohio on March 6 and collect one of the biggest political prizes
of the season because Ohio has 66 delegates at stake. The University of
Cincinnati’s Ohio Poll on Tuesday had Santorum ahead of Romney by 11
percentage points among Ohio Republican voters.
Yet nearly half the voters polled said they may change their minds over
the coming days. Romney’s Michigan victory will likely influence the
Buckeye state vote, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said.
The Michigan race was surreal at times, with Romney and Santorum alike
criticizing Washington policies such as the federal bailout of General
Motors and Chrysler - this, in the cradle of the American car industry.
Romney’s father chaired American Motors Corp. and later became
Michigan’s governor.
More than four in 10 Michigan GOP primary voters said they supported
the auto bailout, according to early exit polling.
And fewer than half of those voting in Michigan said they strongly
believed in the candidates they picked, according to CNN.
Michigan had an open GOP primary in which any registered voter could
participate. Santorum’s campaign suggested over the weekend that
Democrats should get GOP ballots and vote for Santorum. One in 10
people answering early exit polls said they were Democrats, CNN
reported, but if they voted for Santorum, their numbers fell short.
The first candidate to assemble 1,144 delegate votes will become the
nominee at the Republican National Convention in Tampa in late August.
But under Republican National Committee rules, getting all those
delegates is not easy without a consensus candidate. Most states with
primaries and caucuses prior to April award convention delegates
proportionally, making it hard for any candidate to lock up a majority
of delegates before spring.
The task has become harder with the refusal of social conservatives to
fall in line behind Romney, the closest thing this race has had to an
establishment candidate. Romney was a business executive and ran the
2002 Winter Olympics in Utah. But his positions in Massachusetts on gay
rights and government-backed health care have left some Republicans
questioning his convictions, despite his explanations and successes as
a Republican governing a Democratic-leaning state.
Gingrich was viewed as an early alternative to Romney. But with Feb. 7
victories in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri (whose vote was
nonbinding), Santorum became the consensus alternative.
Known for his social conservatism, Santorum has appealed to the party’s
conservative base by making headlines on contraception and theology.
Prior to Tuesday, Romney had 99 delegates, to Santorum’s 47 and
Gingrich’s 32, according to the political website RealClearPolitics.
Paul, who has not led in a single state, had 20.
Gingrich has finished first in just one state, South Carolina.
He is investing his Super Tuesday hopes in his home state of Georgia as
well as Tennessee and Oklahoma. Georgia has 76 delegates, the most of
the 10 Super Tuesday states, and winning it “moves us toward Tampa in a
big way,” Gingrich said Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
Gingrich failed to get on the ballot in Virginia, where Romney is
expected to win. Romney also is expected to finish first in
Massachusetts and Vermont.
That puts Ohio in the bull’s eye of the ongoing Romney-Santorum match
up.
Romney announced Tuesday an all-star Ohio leadership team, chaired by
Portman, to help boost his appeal. Co-chairs include former Sen. George
Voinovich and Reps. Mike Turner of Dayton, Steve LaTourette of
Bainbridge Township and Jim Renacci of Wadsworth.
Gingrich, however, signaled that he intends to get his message out in
Ohio, too, albeit in a more limited way than Romney or Santorum. He
bought airtime to run a recorded, 30-minute address five times between
Thursday and Monday on the Ohio News Network, a channel offered by
cable providers across the state. The spots will highlight Gingrich’s
energy plan to reduce gasoline prices to $2.50 a gallon.
Read this and other articles at the Cleveland Plain Dealer
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