Romney’s Winning Ways - The Road to the White House - Election 2012 - Week 17

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Category: Beltway Insider

Published on Saturday, 28 April 2012 22:08

Written by Janet Walker

Mitt Romney, heir apparent to the Republican Presidential nod, sailed to easy victories in the latest round of primaries as he snuffed out his two remaining challengers in the final leg of his Presidential nomination quest.

USA Today Political Poll Tracker as of April 28, 2012 places former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney leading the pack in popularity, nationally, with a modest 4.4 percentage point gain over the past week, breaking  the fifty percent mark for the first time at the top with 52.8%. Moving into second place, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, gained 3.4 percentage points over the past week coming in at 19.0% and Texas Representative Ron Paul gained 2.3 percentage points to end at 15.0%. Rick Santorum, for the first time throughout the entire primary process, dropped to the bottom of the pack with 13.2%.

With Romney poised to be the Republican Presidential candidate, the media and both political campaigns are transitioning their message toward the general electorate. The Road to the White House will begin including the Gallup Poll Election 2012 tracking statistics highlighting the Obama Administrations approval rating and Obama/Romney popularity numbers. Obama's current overall rating, according to Gallup, is 48% approval and 46% disapprove of his effectiveness. In national popularity among registered voters Obama is at 48% and Romney 45%.

For Romney, the five state contests held this past week showed the multiple sweeping victories he has fought for throughout this arduous primary season.  Scoring double digit victories in all five states, above 60% in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island, Romney barely battled in Pennsylvania with his nearest and once chief challenger, Rick Santorum, who garnered 18.3% of the votes.

Connecticut with 28 delegates gave Romney his biggest victory Tuesday with 67.5% of the voters aligning themselves with his message. Ron Paul secured 13.4% of the vote while 10% of the voter's favored Newt Gingrich. Although Santorum has officially ended his presidential bid his name does appear and 6.8% of the voter's remained loyal to the once front runner.

Newt Gingrich fought hard throughout the primary season and although he too placed a distant second in Tuesday's Delaware contest his 27.1% of the votes wasn't enough, apparently, to convince the embattled former Speaker of the House to continue his pursuit for the GOP Presidential nomination.

Gingrich had announced he would, within the next week, leave the presidential race behind to the nearly crowned Romney and Texas Representative Ron Paul to see the process to its end.

Paul's message has held him throughout the primary trail with distant third and fourth place finishes in most primaries except for Super Tuesday Virginia where as the only candidate on the ballot battling the Romney Money Machine he fared well and scored a solid second with over 40% of the vote.

Upcoming the final six primaries include Indiana, West Virginia, North Carolina on May 8; Nebraska and Oregon, May 15; Arkansas and Kentucky May 22; Texas with 155 delegates, May 29; Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and California with a golden prize of 172 delegates, on June 5 and the last primary Utah on June 26.

The 2012 Delegate Tracker, of the 2286 total available delegates, Mitt Romney has secured 841 delegates, Rick Santorum 273, Newt Gingrich; 141, and Ron Paul 76. To secure the Republican Nomination for President a candidate must receive 1,144 delegates.