GOP rivals in final push for Super Tuesday

A Washington state victory in hand, Mitt Romney is looking ahead to tomorrow’s 10-state bonanza that features contests from Alaska to Ohio to Massachusetts, millions in campaign spending and the largest single day of voting yet in the Republicans’ topsy-turvy primary race.

The former Massachusetts governor won Saturday night’s low-turnout caucuses, adding another win to his tally and gaining momentum in his drive to the Republican nomination. Leading in delegates to the national convention, Romney looked to defend his front-runner standing even while rivals Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul sought to keep their candidacies afloat.

“The voters of Washington have sent a signal that they do not want a Washington insider in the White House. They want a conservative businessman who understands the private sector and knows how to get the federal government out of the way so that the economy can once again grow vigorously,” Romney said on Saturday night before heading to yesterday’s campaign stops in Georgia and Tennessee.

Rick Santorum, in search of his first wins since Feb 7, urged Ohio Republicans not to heed those who cast Romney as the inevitable nominee. He said the race was far from over, even as he was locked in a tight race in Washington state for second place with Paul.

“We need someone who can go out and make the case, not with the most money, but with the best ideas, the best vision, the best track record,” Santorum said in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Yesterday, Santorum said in a televised interview that hardline conservatives could dominate the race if their support wasn’t split between himself and Newt Gingrich. Santorum told “Fox News Sunday” that he and Gingrich were sharing the “anti-Romney vote,” but that the race will “narrow over time” and allow him to pick up more steam.

Meanwhile, Gingrich blitzed the Sunday talk shows, appearing on four national morning programmes but planned no campaign events with actual voters, reflecting his strategy of using media appearances to offset his advertising and organisational disadvantages. Gingrich, leading in the polls in his home state of Georgia, is looking for his first victory since his lone win in South Carolina.

That dynamic — Romney versus a conservative alternative — has dominated the race to this point, as candidates have risen as Romney’s chief rival and then collapsed under a barrage of spending and negative attacks. Santorum seemed to have settled into that role, but his scrappy campaign was set to be tested on its largest stage yet.

The former senator from Pennsylvania lacks the infrastructure of his rivals and is being badly outspent. But, perhaps a sign that money alone wouldn’t determine the nominee, Santorum and Romney were in a close race in Ohio, seen as the crown jewel of Super Tuesday.

Paul, the Texas Republican and a favourite of his party’s libertarian wing, also planned to hit two news shows and then campaign in Alaska.

With contests in 10 states and 437 delegates up for grabs, tomorrow was shaping up to be a hard-fought day that could settle — or shuffle — the quest for the Republican nomination.