Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pressure is mounting on Republican Mitt Romney to win next Tuesday's presidential primary in Illinois, a state considered friendly territory as he seeks to fend off a growing challenge from conservative rival Rick Santorum. Romney and Santorum have added campaign events in Illinois over the next few days to try to get a leg up in the state, where a Chicago Tribune poll last week gave Romney a narrow lead of 35 percent to Santorum's 31 percent. The former Massachusetts governor is pouring money into Illinois and sending an ally, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, to campaign...

GOP being Punk’d? We know that Democrats are crossing over in open primaries, such as Mississippi and Alabama, in order to vote for Rick Santorum, a big union candidate, their votes intended to throw the Republican National Convention into a contested balloting process. This tactic was written up at the Daily Kos. Big union money has even invested for the Santorum campaign. Pardon me for not having all the pertinent facts and I confess I don’t even have time to search for them all, today, to say nothing of presenting and formatting them, here. Can you help? Place further information...

Illinois Primary Could Be Rick Santorum's Big Chance The Republican presidential contest next week gives the conservative a shot at seizing the momentum from front-runner Mitt Romney, who leads him there by just 4 points. By Paul West March 14, 2012 — After a pair of pivotal Southern tests, the Republican presidential race has become a battle between Mitt Romney's grind-it-out delegate arithmetic and Rick Santorum's popular momentum. It's not exactly an even nomination fight at the moment. Romney remains the clear favorite, though his campaign advisors don't expect him to lock up the needed 1,144 delegates before May, at...

More than half of Republicans nationwide (53%) say that all members of the current field of GOP presidential candidates should stay in the race until one clinches the nomination. About one-fifth (21%) say that Newt Gingrich should drop out, leaving Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum to compete for the nomination, while another fifth (20%) say all candidates but Romney should drop out, allowing Romney to focus on the general election campaign..... Some Santorum supporters have argued that Gingrich should drop out, saying that Santorum alone would have a better chance of consolidating the conservative GOP vote that has thus far...

If Mitt Romney wins the Republican presidential nomination, he'll have many options for a running mate. His current rival Rick Santorum probably won't be one of them. Romney said as much Tuesday when Neil Cavuto asked him on Fox Business if he would choose a candidate to his right in order to win the election. "Well that would preclude, of course, Rick Santorum," Romney said. "Because I mean look at his record. I find it interesting that he continues to describe himself as the real conservative.

Does the Tea Party now support politicians who favored bailouts and the ObamaCare individual mandate? Such a statement sounds like an oxymoronic joke, about as likely as a pacifist who backs war or an atheist for Jesus. But the answer, according to exit polls from New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida primaries, is an emphatic “yes.” According to each of these exit polls, the vast majority of self-identified Tea Party supporters have backed either former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (left) or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich over anti-bailout candidates such as Texas Congressman Ron Paul, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum,...

At least it was cordial. But the 150 or so "movement conservatives" gathered at Paul Pressler's this weekend (1/13-14) were a fractured lot. Maybe 10% were for Perry. Almost all of them were against Romney. Well, sort of. Caveat below. There was an official Romney guy there who explained that "You'll either work with us now or work with us later, but you'll all have to get on Mitt's train, because we have the money and the organization, so there's no stopping us." This did not go over well. It just made everyone more determined than ever to do whatever...