Posted on 03/06/2012 9:47:21 AM PST by SmithL
NASHVILLE - Late polling showed Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney in a very close race for Tennessee votes in today's "Super Tuesday" Republican presidential primary, with Newt Gingrich running not far behind.
Tennessee, one of 10 states holding GOP primaries or caucuses today, appeared perhaps second only to Ohio in national attention because of the tight three-way race.
Real Clear Politics averaged three polls taken in Tennessee over the weekend and reported Monday they collectively show Santorum at 32.3 percent, Romney at 29.7 percent, Gingrich at 24.7 percent and Ron Paul at 9.3 percent. Polling in early February had shown Santorum with a much more substantial lead.
But that was before a late onslaught of Romney-oriented advertising, most of it devoted to attacking Santorum. Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney "Super PAC," led the way with about $1.6 million in ads, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The Romney campaign itself bought no television time in Tennessee.
In contrast, the Associated Press reported that Romney's campaign spent $1 million on TV in Ohio with Restore Our Future spending $1.5 million.
A Super PAC supporting Santorum spent about $500,000 in Ohio. Gingrich did not focus on Ohio, concentrating on his home state of Georgia — where polls show him leading — along with Tennessee and Oklahoma.
Santorum paid for only about $100,000 in Tennessee advertising and Gingrich's campaign about $80,000. Winning Our Future, a Super PAC backing Gingrich, has spent about $470,000, according to FEC reports.
More than 200,000 Tennesseans have already voted early, according to the state Division of Elections, a 37 percent drop from early voting in the state's 2008 presidential preference primary. In that year, both Republicans and Democrats had hotly contested primaries — Mike Huckabee winning the GOP majority in Tennessee and Hillary Clinton defeating Barack Obama...
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
200000 voted last week.
Of course James Dobson’s adds would be the most effective....He endorsed Santorum and Tennesseans love Dobson.
200000 voted last week.
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I’d be interested in knowing what the polls were like last week when this 200,000 people voted.
No doubt.
But when Dobson makes public appearances, I’m sure he doesn’t walk to the mic in lockstep with his entire family, and have them stand there behind him during his entire speech.
Does he.
He’s more normal than his endorsee.
GO NEWT GO.......
Santorum has a lovely, loving family any man would be proud of.....
..and no doubt, if Gingrich had the same, he would be showing them off too!
albeit, Gingrich has Calista, and she's never far from his side :^)
He endorsed Santorum and Tennesseans love Dobson.
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That’s encouraging. James Dobson is no dummy and apparently, he thinks that Santorum can beat Obama; something I have doubts about. So, this is encouraging to me. Maybe Santorum can win in the Fall.
The rest were local Democrat candidate signs and their people. I could guess who was voting what primary based on whether the auto was a hybrid or not. This rule of thumb was easily confirmed by the bumper stickers.
There were no White Hoods or Holder's People with batons at the entrance. It was not busy.
The Davidson County used touch-screen machines do not offer a paper record. It could be recording anything.
I'm a born again Christian and it is really disappointing when evangelicals get it wrong in politics. I already have a pastor, I don't need one in the White House. The Federal government is over run with communists and they want to run a family values candidate. “It's the economy stupid!”
Santorum apparently only gives 2% of his income to charity? He doesn't even tithe. Some “Christian” candidate. And hardly worthy of his pious persona.
Newt has the momentum at his back. Hopefully it will be enough for him to take the lead. GO NEWT GO!
...someone who not only espouses moral concepts, but lives them.
Not too long ago in our nation, that use to be the norm.
He answered the question of his income tax returns.....and the answer more than satisfied me.
Santorum has a special needs child with a condition that usually ends in death the first few weeks of life....
..and this little girl is now 3 yrs old.
She needs round the clock care and it's expensive.....
..Santorum doesn't have the multiple millions of dollars of Romney....and his insurance doesn't cover their little girl's illness.
It comes out of his pocket.
I can only say I'm thankful to have had healthy children...
..and you shouldn't condemn him if you haven't walked in his shoes....
..actually his wife says it better....(I've asked someone to put the link up)
While James Dobson has done commendable work through the years as a proponent of Judeo Christian values within the family, I question just how much Tennesseans love him.
If you recall, during the 2008 GOP primaries he trashed Fred Thompson in a vicious manner, even going so far as to question Fred’s Christianity. Amazing, since Dobson had never met Fred Thompson, and Fred had won the endorsement from various right-to-life groups.
Say what you will about Fred, he will always be a favorite son of Tennessee.
Not a lot of prior polling for TN. Here are the last five.
BTW: does anyone else here in Tennessee use the push button electronic machines? The one with the row of button on each side of the screen, the big red button off to the right, and no paper record.
Noticed that while you were supposed to vote for 14 committed delegates, the count was only for each page. I had actually pushed buttons for sixteen and on review noticed it. Wonder how many votes will be discounted because of this.
Dobson doesn't trash people, he's too decent a man.
Where is you link?
I give to the Catholic church every week, but I don’t take it off my taxes. I think that is a dumb reason to give to charity. You are not supposed to brag about charity. Perhaps Santorum gives more but does not deduct it.
The visual of Santorum flanked by his kids rubs some of us the wrong way because it's blatant political exploitation of children. I was going to ask, rhetorically, "Don't they go to school?," but then I realized how silly that would be because Santorum "home schools" even if they took over $70,000 from a local PA school district while living in VA--a scandal that helped sink him in 2006.
Some of it is to be expected but Santorum uses it as a crutch, a prop. It would behoove his supporters to look more closely, to vet him fully and not fall for a Norman Rockwell visual.
His family stands with him because they really do support him and want to help.
His oldest daughter took a year off from college to help her dad.
I can't fathom what you have against his children.....and 6 of the 7 are grown or preteens.....only one is little, his precious daughter Bella.
What's not to love about Norman Rockwell....he's one of my favorites!
Speaking for myself, it isn’t against his children.
It is his decision to have the lot of them to act in unison and to stand in this manner.
Therefore it is against the decision he made to do this.
That some are so biased and subjective, they think the objection is “against is children” is what is troubling.
That isn’t a rational, fair, reality based accusation.
I try to picture him in the oval office or at other official presidential venues, encompassed about on every hand by his family as he goes through his activities.
But my mind refuses to go there, it is too odd.
Then I realize, even if he got to the oval office...totally doubt that probability...but if he did, what are the chances he would continue this? Short answer is, he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. They would have to go their own ways and live their on lives, and it would be too bizarre, anyway.
But right now he says to the audience, my whole family is here with me because, “that’s who I am”.
It is a gimmick for the campaign trail, for the gullible, to get them all squishy and distorted in their feelings and thoughts, so that they will excuse things about him and his candidacy they would not accept from other candidates.
You are prime ripe for it, obviously.
So be it.
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