Romney’s victories leave GOP leaders unimpressed

Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial can­di­date, for­mer Mass­a­chu­setts Gov. Mitt Rom­ney speaks at the Mis­sis­sippi Farm­ers Mar­ket Fri­day in Jack­son, Miss. (Asso­ci­ated Press | Roge­lio V. Solis)

STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

Asso­ci­ated Press

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney’s Super Tues­day vic­to­ries elicited a col­lec­tive yawn from his party’s superdelegates.

Since Tuesday’s vot­ing, Rom­ney has added only a sin­gle endorse­ment to his total among mem­bers of the Repub­li­can National Com­mit­tee, the party lead­ers who auto­mat­i­cally attend the national con­ven­tion this sum­mer. They can sup­port any can­di­date they choose, so they can play an impor­tant role at the convention.

Some of the unde­cided superdel­e­gates say they expect the for­mer Mass­a­chu­setts gov­er­nor to be the even­tual nom­i­nee but, like many Repub­li­can vot­ers, they’re not quite ready to embrace him.

“Right now I am com­fort­able with this going a bit longer,” said Jeff John­son, a national com­mit­tee mem­ber from Minnesota.

In fact, John­son has endorsed for­mer House Speaker Newt Gin­grich, and he said he was “hang­ing tight for now.” But, he acknowl­edged, “There may be a point where it seems all but impos­si­ble for him to win.”

The Asso­ci­ated Press has polled 107 of the 117 Repub­li­can National Com­mit­tee del­e­gates. Rom­ney has 24 endorse­ments, far more than any other can­di­date but only one more than he had the pre­vi­ous week. Gin­grich has four endorse­ments and for­mer Penn­syl­va­nia Sen. Rick San­to­rum has two — unchanged from the pre­vi­ous week.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul lost an RNC del­e­gate, leav­ing him with just one. Seventy-six of the del­e­gates said they were unde­cided or not ready to make a pub­lic endorsement.

The lat­est poll was con­ducted Wednes­day to Fri­day — imme­di­ately after the biggest day of the elec­tion, when vot­ers in 10 states made their choices. Rom­ney won six of 10 Super Tues­day con­tests and more than twice as many del­e­gates that day as any other candidate.

But he’s hav­ing trou­ble con­nect­ing with the party’s con­ser­v­a­tive base, a weak­ness that could hurt him in Saturday’s cau­cuses in Kansas and Tuesday’s pri­maries in Alabama and Mississippi.

Many GOP activists say they worry that a long, nasty pri­mary fight could leave the even­tual nom­i­nee bruised when he takes on Pres­i­dent Barack Obama in the fall. But most of the RNC mem­bers with the power to shorten the con­test are tak­ing a wait-and-see approach.

After all, these same RNC offi­cials adopted new rules last sum­mer meant to lengthen the nom­i­nat­ing process by requir­ing early-voting states to award del­e­gates pro­por­tion­ally, instead of winner-take-all.

Henry Bar­bour, an RNC mem­ber from Mis­sis­sippi, said a vig­or­ous pri­mary bat­tle will toughen the even­tual nom­i­nee for what promises to be a rough cam­paign against Obama.

“If you’re going to be leader of the free world, you’re going to have to put on your big boy pants,” said Bar­bour, who first endorsed Texas Gov. Rick Perry but switched to Rom­ney after Perry dropped out.

James Dunn, an RNC mem­ber from Okla­homa, said, “It’s not going to be easy to defeat Obama. If they can’t han­dle the nom­i­na­tion process, their skin isn’t thick enough to han­dle the big race.”

Dunn used to sup­port Paul but said he now is unde­cided after Paul fin­ished fourth in the Okla­homa primary.

“I don’t know what the heck I’m going to do. I’m not happy with the two front-runners,” Dunn said of Rom­ney and San­to­rum. “I like things about them. I dis­like things about both of them.”

In the over­all race for del­e­gates, Rom­ney leads with 422, fol­lowed by San­to­rum with 181 and Gin­grich with 107. Paul trails with 46.

Rom­ney is still a long way from the 1,144 del­e­gates needed to win the nom­i­na­tion, but he is the only can­di­date on pace to reach the magic num­ber before the party’s national con­ven­tion in August. At their cur­rent rates, San­to­rum and Gin­grich won’t reach even half the num­ber needed.

To date, Rom­ney has won 55 per­cent of the del­e­gates avail­able in pri­maries and cau­cuses; San­to­rum has won 24 per­cent, and Gin­grich has won 14 percent.

The RNC has a total of 168 mem­bers — three from each state, the Dis­trict of Colum­bia and five U.S. ter­ri­to­ries. In some states, RNC mem­bers must sup­port the win­ner of local pri­maries or caucuses.

The AP has iden­ti­fied 39 states and ter­ri­to­ries in which the RNC mem­bers will be free to sup­port any can­di­date they choose. That’s 117 RNC del­e­gates who will essen­tially be free agents at the convention.

A total of 2,286 del­e­gates are slated to attend the Repub­li­can National Con­ven­tion in Tampa, Fla. The RNC del­e­gates make up only 5 per­cent of them. But if Rom­ney stum­bles and can’t amass enough del­e­gates in pri­maries and cau­cuses, the RNC mem­bers would play an impor­tant role.

Jeff Berman, who ran Obama’s del­e­gate oper­a­tion in 2008, said lob­by­ing for the RNC del­e­gates can be intense.

“Rom­ney likely is telling the Repub­li­can superdel­e­gates that he’s going to be the nom­i­nee, get on board now and he’ll always remem­ber you were there when he needed you,” said Berman, who recently wrote a book about Obama’s 2008 cam­paign, titled “The Magic Number.”

San­to­rum and Gin­grich “more likely are say­ing vote for the can­di­date who is a strong con­ser­v­a­tive, who won your state and who will help get your base vot­ers out in Novem­ber to sup­port your local can­di­dates on the bal­lot,” Berman said. “This may be an effec­tive pitch in those parts of the coun­try where Rom­ney is struggling.”

Romney’s cam­paign made a pub­lic pitch this week that he is the inevitable nom­i­nee, call­ing Super Tues­day “our oppo­nents’ last stand.”

San­to­rum has been try­ing to mar­gin­al­ize Gin­grich, say­ing it’s a two-man race and he’s the man to solid­ify the anti-Romney vote.

Errol Galt, an RNC mem­ber from Mon­tana who endorsed Rom­ney on Tues­day, said he would like to see a quick end to the nom­i­na­tion battle.

“But this is the process we are in,” Galt said. “It is going to take a lot of money if the pri­mary is drawn out further.”

Posted by AP News on Mar 9 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.