Santorum Scores Easy Win in Louisiana

UPDATE: Rick Santorum easily won the Louisiana Republican primary, as expected, Saturday. With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Santorum had 49.1 percent of the vote, compared to Mitt Romney’s 26.6 percent, according to data from the Associated Press. Newt Gingrich came in third with 15.9 percent of the vote while Ron Paul got 6.1 percent. Although the victory clearly allows Santorum to continue claiming that he’s the conservative alternative to Romney, it does little to alter the delegate math.

With only 20 delegates up for grabs in Louisiana’s contest, Santorum still has less than half of Romney’s 563 delegates, according to the AP’s count. Still, the Louisiana race clearly marks yet another setback for Romney, who has been defeated in in six Southern states this month, points out the Washington Post.

After campaigning for a week in Louisiana, Gingrich’s result “was an embarrassing setback for a candidate who had hoped to perform well in Southern states to rescue his flailing candidacy,” points out the New York Times. Yet Gingrich immediately rejected suggestions that he should drop out, reports Reuters.

None of the candidates stayed in Louisiana to see the votes counted, probably because it was already clear that Santorum would win big, notes Politico. Even though Santorum will claim momentum from today’s victories, the next contests will take place in the Northeast, considered far more favorable to Romney. Maryland, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C. will vote April 3, which will be followed by a three-week break.   

Saturday, March 25: Louisiana is holding its Republican primary Saturday and everyone expects it to be a good day for Rick Santorum. Polls show the former senator with a double-digit advantage over Mitt Romney largely thanks to the state’s big evangelical population, points out the Washington Post. There aren’t many delegates at stake as the winner won’t be able to collect more than 20 of the state’s 46 delegates. That means the big prize is building momentum, notes the Chicago Tribune.

Still, it’s not quite clear whether a Santorum victory would much matter at this point. Sure, it would help the former senator push the message that Romney is having a hard time winning contests among the GOP base, especially in the South, but it’s hard to get around the delegate math, writes the Associated Press.

Ever since Romney’s 12-point victory over Santorum in Illinois Tuesday, “the conversation appears to have changed,” reports CNN. The fact that Romney has received support from Jeb Bush and Jim DeMint shows just how much party insiders want the contest to end and everyone to coalesce around Romney.

It seems the Illinois victory is helping Romney win momentum among voters as well. A Gallup poll released Friday shows Romney leading Santorum 40 percent to 26 percent, his highest level yet of national support from Republicans, reports CBS News. Romney is feeding off this momentum by keeping attacks focused on President Obama.  

"Santorum can't just win, he has to win big. He's the one who needs to 'shake up' this race. Another ho-hum win in the South doesn't cut it. He's on a political bridge to nowhere and is running out of time to change destinations," a GOP strategist tells CNN.

Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich may end up with zero delegates from Saturday’s primary even though he spent an entire week campaigning in New Orleans, points out Politico. Party rules require that a candidate receive at least 25 percent of the popular vote Saturday in order to get one of the 20 delegates that are at stake. So far, polls suggest Gingrich will not reach that mark.