With Mitt Romney winning primaries in Michigan and Arizona on Tuesday night, the race for the Republican presidential nomination shifted to states that hold contests in the days to come -- including the 10 primaries and caucuses held on Super Tuesday next week.
While Romney won Arizona in a blowout and picked up all 29 delegates at stake, the result from Michigan is less clear. Romney held off Rick Santorum to win more votes in the Wolverine State, but the Santorum camp claimed on Wednesday to have earned a tie in terms of delegates, insisting that both candidates emerged with 15 delegates.
John Brabender, one of Santorums campaign strategists, held a conference call with the media on Wednesday and maintained that his candidate and Romney both won seven congressional districts and split the at-large delegates in Michigan.
The race has now been moved to a tie in delegates, Brabender said, before adding this was a disaster for Mitt Romney, who carried Michigan handily in 2008 and whose father served as governor of the state during the 1960s. Brabender also noted that the Romney camp outspent the Santorum team in Michigan.
The Romney team also looked back at Michigan, continuing to slam Santorum for reaching out to Democrats who could vote in the states open primary.
Despite their best -- and dirtiest -- efforts, the Democrats' kill Romney campaign was a bust last night, Matt Rhodes, Romneys campaign manager, insisted on Wednesday. The voters of Michigan saw through the barrage of baseless attacks from Obama's billion-dollar machine, even with Rick Santorum's pathetic tag-team efforts to recruit liberal Democrats in the Republican primary.
Besides continuing to spar over Michigan, the leading candidates also looked ahead on Wednesday to contests in the coming week. Washington holds its caucus on March 3 and Super Tuesday looms on March 6 with contests in Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.
On Wednesday, Romney turned to surrogates to help him in some of those states -- Gov. Bob McDonnell in Virginia and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman in Ohio -- and unveiled new support in Vermont and Georgia.
While his team insisted that he had split Michigan with Romney, Santorum held media appearances in two states where he currently leads in the polls -- Ohio and Oklahoma -- before focusing on Tennessee with rallies in Knoxville and Nashville on Wednesday.
Santorum has a solid lead in a poll of Tennessee unveiled on Wednesday by Middle Tennessee State University. The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania takes 40 percent in the poll of Tennessee Republicans, followed by Romney with 19 percent, Newt Gingrich with 13 percent and Ron Paul with 11 percent. The question to Tennessee Republicans was part of a larger survey of 646 Tennessee voters taken Feb.13-25 and had a margin of error of +/- 4 percent.
Gingrich has also targeted Tennessee, holding events earlier in the week and campaigning with former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson.
But Gingrich continues to focus on the biggest prize up for grabs on Tuesday -- his home base of Georgia which has 76 delegates. He spent Wednesday continuing a bus tour of the state.
A poll from SurveyUSA, released on Tuesday, found Gingrich leading the pack in the Peach State, 15 percent ahead of Santorum and 16 percent ahead of Romney.
While Georgia looks solidly behind favorite son Gingrich, Romney is looking to build momentum in Georgia. Romney unveiled his team in the state on Wednesday and it will be led by state Attorney General Sam Olens. Other prominent Georgia Republicans signing up to back Romney include two other statewide elected officials -- Public Service Commissioner Doug Everett and Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler.
Georgia voters are tired of the failed promises from President Obama, said Romney. They are looking for a leader who will create jobs and stop the growth of government. With the help of these Georgia leaders, I will be able to defeat President Obama and put in place common-sense conservative principles to turn around our economy and shrink government.
Mitt Romneys plan for more jobs, less debt and smaller government is one of the many reasons that Georgia conservatives are getting behind his campaign, said Olens. The steering committee has been hard at work spreading Mitt Romneys pro-growth message and will continue the hard work of defeating President Obama in November.
Meanwhile, Paul focused on two other states that will be up for grabs this week -- Washington and Vermont. His team launched a new ad in both states that took aim at the other three contenders for the Republican nomination.
This first leg of our Super Tuesday and pre-Super Tuesday ad buy plan shows our commitment to Washington and Vermont, a dedication to these states and their voters that the other candidates have not shown, said Jesse Benton, Pauls campaign chairman. This airtime purchase and forthcoming buys elsewhere advance the delegate-attainment strategy that will help Ron Paul win the Republican nomination as we continue along this exhaustive 50-state campaign, a race we are prepared to stay in and win.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
