Thursday, March 15, 2012

Reactions to KS, HI, MS and AL Primaries

Over the last seven days we've seen four states contests occur. Three were won by Rick Santorum. Only deep blue Hawaii went to Mitt Romney. So let's look at it state by state:

Kansas (Caucuses)

Senator Santorum won 51% of the vote. Mittens came in second 20% and Newt had only 14% (a very disappointing finish) and Ron Paul with 12%.  Kansas was just the beginning of of some huge victories for Santorum.  Important to note is that 65% of the vote in Kansas went to the conservative candidates.

Hawaii (Caucus)

Mittens won his only contest of the week with 45% of the vote.  Senator Santorum won 25%, Ron Paul won 18% for a 3rd place finish, and Newt had an again disappointing 11%.  Hawaii was a large margin for Mitt, but ultimately is not helpful for 2012.  Not only is Hawaii as deep blue as California and New York, but it's also Obama's native state.  It also has only 20 delegates that are proportionally distributed.

Alabama (Primary)

Senator Santorum won the state with 34% of the vote.  It was a nice win.  Senator Santorum has clearly made himself the conservative alternative in this race, drawing the Tea Party vote nicely while, despite the Left's best efforts, continuing to win women. Newt came in second with 29% of the vote followed by Mittens who also had 29% of the vote (Newt actually received .3% more of the vote, by the way) and Ron Paul received 5% of the vote.  It was another big win for Santorum, who again solidifies himself as the conservative who can indeed mathematically beat Romney. Important to note is that 69% of the vote went to the two conservatives.

Mississippi (Primary)

Senator Santorum won 32% of the vote in Mississippi, with Gingrich winning 31% and Romney 30%.  Ron Paul was a distant third with only 4%.  Again, Santorum is showing his strength as the conservative choice.  Also again important to note is that 63% of the vote went to the conservative candidate.

So what does it all mean? It means, quite frankly, it's time for Newt to get out of Santorum's way. We as conservatives all want better than Mittens. At this point, we're not going to get that with two conservatives splitting the vote. If the two consolidated their support, believe me, Mittens would be in a lot of trouble. 

Tomorrow, I'll get into that more. But for now, I leave you with this: Santorum has solidified himself, and he can beat Mittens. Or we can demand Newt, and settle for Romney.  Either way, this last week was a big winner for Santorum.

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