Romney wins support of Maine caucus-goers
http://dervishcom.blogspot.com/2012/02/news-alert-romney-wins-support-of-maine.html
Mitt Romney won the support of those attending Republican presidential caucuses in Maine Saturday, a key victory the former Massachusetts governor hopes will help him regain momentum after defeats in three nominating contests.
Romney’s superior organization and dominating advantage with endorsements of top state Republicans had given him a significant edge in the low-turnout and nonbinding affair.
But Texas Rep. Ron Paul had aggressively worked the state’s grass roots in hopes of snagging his first win of the presidential primary season in Maine.
Romney won 39 percent of the votes of those who took part in a presidential poll at Maine caucus sites; Paul took 36 percent of the vote, while former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum captured 18 percent.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won 6 percent.
The tiny Maine race — fewer than 5,600 votes were cast — had taken on increased importance in recent days as Romney struggled to put his campaign back on track after losing to Santorum in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday.
Maine was Romney’s only chance to reset the race’s narrative for more than two weeks. Republicans will not vote again until the critically important primaries in Arizona and Michigan on Feb. 28, followed by Super Tuesday on March 6, when 10 states will hold elections.
The Maine win came as Romney also won a presidential straw poll of activists attending the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday, a key annual gathering of right-leaning Republican activists concluding Saturday in Washington.
Taken together, the dual wins form a major boost for Romney, who had faced tough questions in the last week about whether his campaign can excite the conservative base of the Republican party.
At the straw poll, Romney won 38 percent of the 3,408 votes cast, giving him a healthy cushion over the 31 percent won by Santorum. Gingrich won 15 percent of the vote and Paul took 12 percent.
In a statement, Romney said the voters of Maine “sent a clear message that it is past time to send an outsider to the White House, a conservative with a lifetime of experience in the private sector, who can uproot Washington’s culture of taxing and spending and borrowing and endless bureaucracy.”
But Romney’s good day is unlikely to put to rest continued questions from the right wing of the party about his candidacy.
In a statement Saturday, top conservative activist Richard A. Viguerie scoffed at Romney’s description of his tenure as Massachusetts governor as “severely conservative” in a Friday speech to CPAC in which Romney used variations of the the word “conservative” to describe himself or his policies 24 times.
Viguerie insisted that in 50 years of work in Republican politics, he’d never heard Romney described that way.
“Romney has shown, once again, that he can mouth the words conservatives use, but he has no gut-level emotional connection with the conservative movement and its ideas and policies,” said Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, who has endorsed Santorum.
Romney’s superior organization and dominating advantage with endorsements of top state Republicans had given him a significant edge in the low-turnout and nonbinding affair.
But Texas Rep. Ron Paul had aggressively worked the state’s grass roots in hopes of snagging his first win of the presidential primary season in Maine.
Romney won 39 percent of the votes of those who took part in a presidential poll at Maine caucus sites; Paul took 36 percent of the vote, while former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum captured 18 percent.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won 6 percent.
The tiny Maine race — fewer than 5,600 votes were cast — had taken on increased importance in recent days as Romney struggled to put his campaign back on track after losing to Santorum in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday.
Maine was Romney’s only chance to reset the race’s narrative for more than two weeks. Republicans will not vote again until the critically important primaries in Arizona and Michigan on Feb. 28, followed by Super Tuesday on March 6, when 10 states will hold elections.
The Maine win came as Romney also won a presidential straw poll of activists attending the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday, a key annual gathering of right-leaning Republican activists concluding Saturday in Washington.
Taken together, the dual wins form a major boost for Romney, who had faced tough questions in the last week about whether his campaign can excite the conservative base of the Republican party.
At the straw poll, Romney won 38 percent of the 3,408 votes cast, giving him a healthy cushion over the 31 percent won by Santorum. Gingrich won 15 percent of the vote and Paul took 12 percent.
In a statement, Romney said the voters of Maine “sent a clear message that it is past time to send an outsider to the White House, a conservative with a lifetime of experience in the private sector, who can uproot Washington’s culture of taxing and spending and borrowing and endless bureaucracy.”
But Romney’s good day is unlikely to put to rest continued questions from the right wing of the party about his candidacy.
In a statement Saturday, top conservative activist Richard A. Viguerie scoffed at Romney’s description of his tenure as Massachusetts governor as “severely conservative” in a Friday speech to CPAC in which Romney used variations of the the word “conservative” to describe himself or his policies 24 times.
Viguerie insisted that in 50 years of work in Republican politics, he’d never heard Romney described that way.
“Romney has shown, once again, that he can mouth the words conservatives use, but he has no gut-level emotional connection with the conservative movement and its ideas and policies,” said Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, who has endorsed Santorum.
