Sen. Marco Rubio and former President George H. W. Bush have now both endorsed Mitt Romney. While Mitt racks up major nominations, Rick Santorum shows signs of fading…in Pennsylvania. That would be his home state.
The poll of 505 registered Republican voters, conducted March 20-25 in conjunction with the Tribune-Review and other media outlets, shows Santorum clinging to a small lead over Romney, 30 percent to 28 percent, within the poll’s 4.2 percent margin of error.
That’s a big change from February, when Santorum, once a U.S. senator from Penn Hills, held a commanding 15-percentage-point lead over Romney in the poll.
Newt Gingrich has shaken up his campaign staff, which really means that he has laid many off, and he has drastically scaled back his already lean road game. You’re unlikely to win where you don’t even campaign. The man behind his super PAC, Sheldon Adelson, is hinting that the cash line may be about to go away.
Sheldon Adelson, who with wife Miri, has given more than $15 million to the Newt Gingrich Super PAC Winning Our Future, said Monday he believes Gingrich is “at the end of his line” regarding the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
There are three primary contests coming up on April 3, in Washington DC, Maryland and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania comes up on April 24, when it is among five states going to the polls that day. Even if Santorum wins there, it can and will be dismissed as home state advantage, while Romney is likely to will all four of the other states: CT, DE, NY, and RI. And Romney could win PA too; the logistics favor him there. The very fact that April 24 features five states favors Romney’s larger organization.
Gingrich is for all intents and purposes out of the race, he just hasn’t come to terms with that yet. Santorum must win his home state with some room to spare and pick off something meaningful on April 3 and April 24.
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