Super Tuesday isn’t super because it’s exciting. American voters have been less than enthusiastic about this crop of White House contenders (OK, they’re bored, but I’m trying to be nice). It is super for the big stakes involved — 10 states holding primaries or caucuses with 419 delegates in play.
But it all hinged on Ohio. Romney and Santorum were neck-and-neck in that state by late Tuesday night. Romney eventually won with a tiny majority. Ohio is important in the general election, because it’s a so-called swing, which means that voters are evenly split and could swing Republican or Democratic on any given election. Romney outspent Santorum three to one there. If he couldn’t win in Ohio, it’s likely Romney would face yet more criticism that he’s just not conservative enough.
After a nail-biting vote count, Romney won Ohio with 38 per cent. Santorum was right behind him at 37 per cent.
But it gets worse. Romney has been burning through cash at a historic rate and almost all of it is coming from big-time donors. He outspent Santorum nine to one in Tennessee and 50 to one in Oklahoma, and yet he lost both plus North Dakota. Santorum won 37.3 percent to Romney’s 28 in Tennessee and 33.7 percent to Romney’s 28.2 in Oklahoma. Santorum took 40 percent of the votes in North Dakota (Ron Paul came in second with 27 percent).
Fortunately for Romney, he won Virginia, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Idaho, but those were expected. He is the former governor of the Bay State. Santorum wasn’t on the ballot in Virginia. Romney beat his rivals for Vermont’s neighbor, New Hampshire. And Idaho, like Nevada, has a sizable Mormon population loyal to Romney, a Mormon.
Also expected was Newt Gingrich’s win in Georgia, which he represented as the Speaker of the House in the 1990s. He crushed it with 47.5 percent of votes. Gingrich’s only other win was in South Carolina, which gave him hope of being the conservative alternative to Moderate Mitt. But this was before Santorum swept Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri in early February, which made him the official alternative. There has been some speculation that Gingrich might be able to make up a lot of ground on Super Tuesday given the number of Southern states up for grabs. That hasn’t materialized and we’ll see if Gingrich honors his vow to remain in contention all the way to the convention.
Romney still has the most money. Any time a rival has threatened him, Romney just spends more on attack ads (which work no matter how people complain about negative ads). That means this is a numbers game. In some states, delegates are proportionally awarded. In others, it’s winner-takes-all. Romney only needs to achieve a certain number and then spend the rest of the nominating process in a rear-guard posture. When that happens and what that number will be, of course, are the big questions.
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