Former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney won the Washington caucuses vote and he stage is now set for a high-stakes “Super Tuesday” in the battle for the 2012 Republican nomination:
Mitt Romney won Saturday’s nonbinding caucuses in Washington State, handing him a symbolic victory in his quest for the Republican nomination as he heads into the critical Super Tuesday contests just three days away.
The vote was a nonbinding straw poll and has no bearing on the selection of the state’s 43 delegates. Of those, 40 are up for grabs, but they will not be picked until later.
All four candidates remaining in the race — Mr. Romney, Rick Santorum, Representative Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich — actively campaigned in Washington, but none concentrated their efforts there as intensely as Mr. Paul.
The victory gives Mr. Romney some momentum heading into the big contests this week on Super Tuesday, when 10 states vote. With 81 percent of the Washington votes counted on Saturday night, Mr. Romney had won about 37 percent, with Mr. Paul at 25 percent, Mr. Santorum at 24 percent and Mr. Gingrich at 11 percent.
“The voters of Washington have sent a signal that they do not want a Washington insider in the White House,” Mr. Romney said in a statement as he campaigned in Ohio. All three of his opponents are tied to the nation’s capital, but he has focused his attacks on Mr. Santorum as an insider who does not understand the economy.
“They want a conservative businessman who understands the private sector,” Mr. Romney said.
Meanwhile, Glenn Reynolds aka InstaPundit got emails from some caucus goers indicating that enthusiasm was high for two reasons: (1)the overwhelming desire to get someone nominated who can beat President Barack Obama, (2)the inspiration of the late conservative media maven and activist Andrew Breitbart.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.