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Newt Gingrich’s California Factor......."The California Republican primary isn’t until June 5, but Michael Schroeder, Gingrich’s state political director, said if by Super Tuesday the race is still a three or four man split, California could suddenly come into play.

Gingrich has long said he’s in the race until the convention, even saying Thursday his goal was “to go to Tampa.”

California awards 172 delegates, and was a winner-take-all state in previous Republican presidential primary elections. This election cycle the state will award proportional delegates for the first time, and delegates are bound based on a win in one of the 53 congressional districts. Each district awards three delegates, and an additional 10 at-large delegates are bound to the state-wide winner.

“If you win a couple of congressional districts, you get can get as many as you would have gotten in New Hampshire just out of two congressional delegates,” Schroeder said. “So everything’s going to change in terms of how California’s campaigned to. We’ll be campaigned to like we’re several different states.”

Schroeder said there are districts with only four or five thousand Republicans, such as in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles.

“Most of them are either Asian, African American or Hispanic. And so you’re going to see for the first time presidential candidates aggressively campaigning to Asians, blacks and Hispanics in California, because they can win significant numbers of delegates,” Schroeder said.".....