Rivals cast doubts on Romney
Santorum says ‘he can’t close the deal’ as campaigns head south
WASHINGTON—WITH TWO Southern primaries on the horizon this week, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich sharpened their attacks against Mitt Romney on Sunday, as Santorum bluntly declared that the former Massachusetts governor “can’t close the deal” and Gingrich called Romney the party’s weakest front-runner since 1920.
While much of the attention is focused on Romney, the Republican contests in Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday could bring a new measure of clarity to the field. The tension between Gingrich and Santorum is steadily increasing, but Gingrich has rejected suggestions that he leave the race if he fares poorly in the two primaries.
“I think we’re probably pulling ahead in both states right now,” Gingrich said in an interview on Fox News Sunday. He rejected the assertion that Santorum was the strongest conservative in the race, saying, “I think there’s a space for a visionary conservative with big solutions.”
Santorum, who swept to a commanding victory in the Kansas caucuses Saturday, stopped short of joining his aides and supporters in calling for Gingrich to end his campaign. But he made clear that a two-man race with Romney was the party’s best chance to present a conservative alternative for Republicans.
“Speaker Gingrich can stay in as long as he wants, but I think the better opportunity to nominate a conservative is to give us an opportunity to go head-tohead with Gov. Romney,” Santorum said Sunday on NBC’S Meet the Press. “Hopefully that occurs sooner rather than later.”
The candidates have picked up about 72 percent of the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the Republican party’s nomination. Romney has secured about 40 percent of the delegates, Santorum about 19 percent, Gingrich about 9 percent and Paul about 4 percent.
While Romney and his aides have increasingly presented him as the all-but-certain Republican nominee, Santorum tried to slow that momentum. He argued Sunday that the race wasn’t simply “a mathematical formula.”
“He can’t close the deal,” Santorum said, saying Romney spent considerable money in Ohio and Michigan but won only “by the skin of his teeth.” He added, “We’ve been slowly clawing our way back into this race. We’re in a great position right now.”
Romney, who has struggled to win several Southern states, is looking ahead to the Illinois primary on March 20 as the place to make his stand in his fight with Santorum. But a new Chicago Tribune/wgn-tv poll released Saturday evening found that the two candidates are locked in a tight race in the state.
The poll found Romney supported by 35 percent of likely Republican primary voters, compared with 31 percent for Santorum. The poll of 600 registered likely voters was conducted Wednesday through Friday and has an error margin of 4 percentage points.
The survey found Gingrich with 12 percent and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas with 7 percent. Sixteen percent of voters were undecided in the poll, and 46 percent said they were still willing to change their minds, which raises the importance of the primaries in Mississippi, Alabama and Hawaii on Tuesday, along with the Missouri caucuses on Saturday.
In his television interview Sunday, Gingrich stepped back from his spokesman’s assertion last week that he must win the Mississippi and Alabama primaries to keep his candidacy alive. He renewed his pledge to fight all the way to the Republican convention in August, calling Romney the weakest Republican front-runner since Leonard Wood in 1920, an Army general who was defeated by Warren G. Harding after 10 rounds of voting at the convention.
“Yes he’s the front-runner,” Gingrich said of Romney. “He’s not a very strong front-runner and almost all conservatives are opposed to him, which is the base of the party. I think we are as likely to see after the last primary in June a 60-day conversation about what’s going to happen, as we are to see Romney nominated.”
Romney had no planned campaign appearances Saturday or Sunday, but his campaign and an allied independent group were far outpacing his rivals on the air.
The Romney campaign boosted its television ad spending from $ 165,000 to $233,000 in Alabama. Restore Our Future, a super PAC run by former Romney advisers, was spending $1.42 million on ads in Alabama and $973,000 in Mississippi.
His campaign also added a last-minute stop in Mobile, Ala., this morning, which advisers said was in recognition of the fluidity of the race and the potential that he could still win the state.
The Gingrich campaign was running about $125,000 in ads in Alabama and $83,000 in Mississippi while the pro-gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future was spending $413,000 on ads in Alabama and $250,000 in Mississippi.
Santorum had only a nominal presence on the air in both states. But the Red White and Blue fund, his allied super PAC, was spending $275,000 on ads in Alabama and $235,000 in Mississippi.
Wins in the U.S. territories Guam, the Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands along with Wyoming have helped Romney significantly pad his delegate lead in the race. The Associated Press calculates that Romney now has 454 delegates compared with 217 for Santorum, 107 for Gingrich and 47 for Paul.
A candidate must win 1,144 to clinch the Republican presidential nomination at the national convention.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in an interview Sunday on ABC News’ This Week, that the Republican race was Romney’s to lose.
“Mathematically this thing is about over,” Graham said, “but emotionally it’s not.” Information for this article was contributed by Jeff Zeleny of The
New York Times and by Beth Fouhy, Philip Elliott and Stephen Ohlemacher of The Associated Press.