The Washington state Republican caucuses are one day away. Here are ten things you need to know today.
- Poll shows Romney up in Washington caucuses: A Public Policy Polling (D) survey of the Washington state caucuses released very early on Friday morning shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leading. Romney gets 37 percent in the survey, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum sees 32, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) is at 16, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gets 13. Santorum led in PPP’s polling a few weeks ago. The caucus vote will be held on Saturday.
- Seattle Times endorses Romney ‘by default’: Washinton’s largest paper, the Seattle Times, has endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination, very grudgingly. The paper’s editorial board he got their nod “by default” as he was the only credible choice. “Romney does not excite voters and is a suspect choice, except for all the others [candidates],” the paper wrote.
- Ron Paul to skip Huckabee forum to campaign in Washington: Ron Paul will be heading to Washington to campaign for the state’s 43 delegates, rather than participate in a forum held by Fox News host and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee at 8 p.m. on Saturday night. According to Real Clear Politics, the Paul campaign called the decision to hold the forum at that time “arrogant.”
- Female Democratic senators and senate candidates will fundraise after Blunt Amendment victory: Eleven female Democratic senators and senate candidates will head to the western states on a fundraising tour after helping to defeat the Blunt Amendment in a Senate vote, which would have allowed employers to deny health care coverage on religious or moral grounds. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a web ad on the subject, saying “It’s time to end the culture wars.”
- Christie to campaign with Romney in Ohio: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) will campaign with Romney in Ohio on Friday, appearing at a rally in Cleveland on Friday night with the former Gov. Christie is widely seen as a possible Vice-Presidential pick, but he has denied interest.
- Romney names oil tycoon and energy advisor to his campaign: Mitt Romney has named Harold Hamm, a billionaire oil tycoon from Oklahoma, as chairman of Romney’s Energy Policy Advisory Group. “Mitt’s goal of cheap, plentiful energy for the American economy offers the American people a stark alternative to President Obama’s goal of driving prices higher,” Hamm said through a campaign release.
- Quinnipiac poll shows Santorum leading by four in Ohio: Despite Mitt Romney taking the popular vote in Michigan on Tuesday night, former PA Senator Rick Santorum still leads in the Ohio GOP primary, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University. Santorum gets 35 percent to Romney’s 31 as the two campaigns have put huge emphasis on the state.
- Obama fundraises on the Upper East Side: President Obama participated in a campaign fundraiser on the Upper East Side in New York Thursday night, at the home of designer Michael Smith and James Costos, a vice president at HBO. President Obama made a joke about the GOP race, saying of the debates, “We’re thinking of just airing these as advertisements — without commentary. Here you go, this is what they said some time ago,” per the White House pool report.
- Candidates trekking across the country on Friday: Mitt Romney starts the day campaigning in Washington, meeting with voters in Bellevue, before heading to Ohio for the rally with NJ Gov. Chris Christie. Romney’s wife Ann will campaigning all day in Ohio, while Mitt’s son Josh has been deployed to Idaho to rally for votes there. Santorum has multiple events in Ohio and then a teletownhall with Republicans in Washington.
- Santorum campaign decries Michigan GOP decision on delegates: The Michigan GOP’s decision to allot the two at-large delegates to popular vote winner Mitt Romney, despite the fact that he didn’t win a majority, dismayed the Santorum campaign. “There’s just no way this is happening,” Hogan Gidley, National Communications Director for Santorum said in a statement blasted out by the campaign. “We’ve all heard rumors that Mitt Romney was furious that he spent a fortune in his home state, had all the political establishment connections and could only manage to tie Rick Santorum. But we never thought the Romney campaign would try to rig the outcome of an election by changing the rules after the vote. This kind of back room dealing political thuggery just cannot and should not happen in America.”