What’s Happening with Conservatives and the Tea Party

by Art Kelly

1.  Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, has called on Newt Gingrich to consider dropping out of the presidential race and backing Rick Santorum.

In a statement following the Super Tuesday primaries, Viguerie said, "It has become increasingly clear that the former Speaker can either be a kingmaker or a spoiler," but cannot win the Republican nomination because he lacks "the campaign infrastructure… to compete with (Mitt) Romney's money and establishment backing."

By contrast, Viguerie believes Santorum has "the overwhelming support" from leaders in the conservative movement and a "huge base of small donors" that give him the means "to go mano y mano against Romney."

Citing the results in Ohio, Viguerie said, "All that is lacking is a united conservative movement to put Santorum over the top."

In the Buckeye State, Romney edged Santorum by only 10,284 votes out of 1,202,995 total votes.  Gingrich received 175,502 votes.  If Gingrich had not been in the race and at least 53% of his supporters had voted for Santorum, the former Senator from Pennsylvania would have been the winner.

Only "a united conservative movement…can prevent a Romney nomination and the debacle of four more years of an Obama presidency," Viguerie said.

Gingrich responded with a statement calling Santorum "a typical politician who played the Washington game. He is a big government, big labor, earmark lover who publicly admits to putting Party over principle when in power."

Despite these harsh words for Santorum, the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin alluded to even worse animosity Gingrich has for Romney and suggested Gingrich might withdraw at some point as a "revenge moment against Romney."  But she concluded that as long "as it is possible that Gingrich can overtake Santorum, he's not likely to give up."

2.  As reported by the New York Times, here are the complete results from the 10 states that voted on Super Tuesday, plus the Washington caucus from the previous Saturday:

Alaska
4,285 (32.4%) Mitt Romney (8 delegates)
3,860 (29.2%) Rick Santorum (7 delegates)
3,175 (24.0%) Ron Paul (6 delegates)
1,865 (14.1%) Newt Gingrich (3 delegates)
     34 (  0.3%) Others

Georgia
424,918 (47.2%) Gingrich (46 delegates)
233,177 (25.9%) Romney (13 delegates)
176,159 (19.6%) Santorum (2 delegates)
  58,968 (  6.5%) Paul
    7,123 (  0.8%) Others

Idaho
27,514 (61.6%) Romney (32 delegates)
  8,115 (18.2%) Santorum
  8,086 (18.1%) Paul
     940 (  2.1%) Gingrich
       17 (  0.0%) Others

Massachusetts
265,110 (72.2%) Romney (41 delegates)
  44,255 (12.0%) Santorum
  35,037 (  9.5%) Paul
  16,990 (  4.6%) Gingrich
    6,046 (  1.6%) Others

North Dakota
4,510 (39.7%) Santorum (11 delegates)
3,186 (28.1%) Paul (8 delegates)
2,691 (23.7%) Romney (7 delegates)
   962 (  8.5%) Gingrich (2 delegates)

Ohio
456,351 (37.9%) Romney (35 delegates)
446,067 (37.1%) Santorum (21 delegates)
175,502 (14.6%) Gingrich
111,208 (  9.2%) Paul
  13,867 (  1.2%) Others

Oklahoma
96,759 (33.8%) Santorum (14 delegates)
80,291 (28.0%) Romney (13 delegates)
78,686 (27.5%) Gingrich (13 delegates)
27,572 (  9.6%) Paul (1 delegate)
  2,900 (  1.0%) Others

Tennessee
204,978 (37.2%) Santorum (25 delegates)
154,893 (28.1%) Romney (10 delegates)
132,146 (24.0%) Gingrich (8 delegates)
  49,782 (  9.0%) Paul
    9,923 (  1.8%) Others

Vermont
23,866 (39.8%) Romney (9 delegates)
15,277 (25.5%) Paul (4 delegates)
14,214 (23.7%) Santorum (4 delegates)
  4,926 (  8.2%) Gingrich
  1,741 (  2.9%) Others

Virginia
158,051 (59.5%) Romney (43 delegates)
107,470 (40.5%) Paul (3 delegates)

Washington
19,111 (37.6%) Romney (30 delegates)
12,594 (24.8%) Paul (5 delegates)
12,089 (23.8%) Santorum (5 delegates)
  5,221 (10.3%) Gingrich
  1,749 (  3.4%) Others

Wyoming (only part of their caucuses have been held)
297 (53.7%) Romney (5 delegates)
161 (29.1%) Santorum
  75 (13.6%) Uncommitted
  16 (  2.9%) Paul (1 delegate)
    4 (  0.7%) Others
    0 (  0.0%) Gingrich

Super Tuesday (and Washington) Totals
1,425,637 (38.0%) Romney (246 delegates)
1,011,167 (26.9%) Santorum (89 delegates)
   842,156 (22.4%) Gingrich (72 delegates)
   432,371 (11.5%) Paul (28 delegates)
     43.479 (  1.2%) Others

3. Altogether, Real Clear Politics calculates the total popular vote so far of all primaries and caucuses as:

3,196,326 Romney
1,957,727 Santorum
1,827,336 Gingrich
   900,399 Paul

And with 1,144 delegates needed to win the presidential nomination, Real Clear Politics’ delegate count is:

404 Romney
161 Santorum
105 Gingrich
  61 Paul

 
4.  The next votes will be Saturday, March 10, will be a primary in Kansas and non-binding caucuses in the Northern Marianas, Virgin Islands, and Guam.

And next Tuesday, March 13, there will be primaries in Alabama and Mississippi and caucuses in Hawaii and American Samoa.

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