Romney’s lead over Santorum narrows ahead of Illinois vote

The heartland state of Illinois is the next test today in the Republican party’s presidential nominating contest and one that would seem tailor-made for moderate front-runner Mitt Romney.

But polls show him with only a narrow lead over the deeply conservative Rick Santorum, who has caught the imagination of the right wing of the party and turned the nomination battle into an extended fight that threatens party unity before the November election.

Mr Romney was expected to do best in the wide arc of Chicago suburbs. But Mr Santorum finds significant support downstate, where voters find more in common on social issues with their conservative neighbours to the south.

Mr Obama, meanwhile, reported that his campaign raised $45m (€34m) for his re-election bid in February, bringing his total to about $300m for this election cycle.

While his standing has improved in recent weeks as the US economy shows signs of a sustained recovery, he remains a vulnerable candidate because of the depth of economic pain Americans have suffered during his presidency.

He spent most of the first three years of his term battling against the deepest US economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

After thrashing Mr Santorum in Sunday’s primary in Puerto Rico and winning all 20 delegates from the US territory, Mr Romney was intensifying calls for his Republican opponents to concede defeat even before Illinois voters cast their ballots.

He has collected more delegates than his opponents combined and was poised to win the delegate battle in Illinois, even if he loses the popular vote, because of mistakes by Mr Santorum’s shoestring operation.

Mr Santorum automatically will cede at least 10 of the state’s 54 delegates because his campaign failed to file necessary paperwork.

Brushing aside scepticism from the party’s right flank, Mr Romney aides have been emphasising their overwhelming mathematical advantage in the race to 1,144 delegates — the number needed to clinch the nomination.

Mr Santorum has all but conceded he cannot earn enough delegates to win, but claimed he was in the contest for the long haul because Mr Romney is a weak front-runner.

Mr Romney is on pace to capture the nomination in June unless Mr Santorum or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are able to win decisively in the coming contests.

Including Puerto Rico’s results, Mr Romney has now collected 521 delegates, compared to Mr Santorum’s 253, Mr Gingrich’s 136 and Ron Paul’s 50.