All four candidates press on to Colorado and Minnesota. Here are ten things you need to know today.
- Romney opens up lead over GOP candidates but trails Obama: A new Washington Post-ABC national poll of the Republican and Republican-leaning independents shows Mitt Romney opening up wide lead with 39% of the vote compared to Newt Gingrich with 23%, Rick Santorum with 16%, and Ron Paul with 15%. Romney outperforms his rivals among most demographics, but comes in behind both Gingrich and Santorum among “very conservative” voters and behind Gingrich for voters for whom a candidates’ religious beliefs matter. The poll also shows Obama beating Romney in a match-up 51% to 45% — the first time one of them has crossed the 50% mark.
- Final numbers from Nevada are finally in: Early Monday morning, the Nevada GOP produced the final results for Saturday’s Nevada caucuses. Mitt Romney won with 50.1% to Newt Gingrich’s 21.1%. Ron Paul finished with 18.8% and Rick Santorum with 10%. Turnout was substantially lower than in 2008; this time only 32,963 voters participated compared to 44,000 in 2008.
- Columbus Dispatch endorses Romney: Romney has a commanding lead in newspaper endorsements. Sunday, Romney added to that list the endorsement of the Columbus Dispatch, one of Ohio’s biggest papers. They embraced Romney’s private sector experience as well as his electability: “Republicans should offer the voters of the United States a chief executive who is experienced at and unafraid of the often-unpopular job of turning things around. Romney fills that bill.”
- Pawlenty and Bolton hold Romney rally: Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and former UN ambassador John Bolton will hold a get out the vote event for Romney at his headquarters in Edina, Minnesota.
- Singer Pat Boone endorses Rick Santorum: Singer and conservative activist Pat Boone, who received the CPAC lifetime achievement award last year, has endorsed Rick Santorum. In his statement emailed out by the campaign, Boone reminisced about supporting Ronald Reagan, saying “I see many of those same qualities in Rick Santorum. He’s experienced, honest, and deeply principled.”
- Democrats attack Romney as ‘too extreme’ for Colorado: The DNC will hold a press call Monday afternoon claiming that Mitt Romney is “too extreme” for Colorado. On the call will be a resident of Arapahoe County to discuss “what life would be like for the typical area resident were Mitt Romney president.” Mitt Romney has as campaign stop scheduled for the Arapahoe County high school Monday evening.
- Romney is attacking Santorum on earmarks: Rick Perry first used the earmark attack on Rick Santorum in Iowa. Now it’s Romney’s turn. On Sunday, the Romney camp sent out an email highlighting Rick Santorum’s record on earmarks. The Romney campaign hasn’t paid much attention to Santorum since Iowa so this is a testament to the close race we are seeing in Minnesota, where the candidates are virtually tied and Santorum could potentially take a win away from Romney.
- Santorum kicking Gingrich while he’s down: On Sunday, the Santorum campaign sent out an email saying Newt Gingrich wasn’t up to the task of playing the anti-Mitt to the conservative base. Santorum’s campaign used recent polling numbers to suggest that Newt’s time is up and Santorum will step up to the plate.
- Rick Santorum to make ‘major health care speech’: Rick Santorum will campaign in Minnesota before moving to Colorado for the afternoon/evening. In Rochester, MN, Santorum will give a “major health care speech” at 10 a.m.
- Gingrich will campaign in Colorado and Minnesota: Newt Gingrich will hold two rallies in Colorado before heading to Minnesota for an evening rally. He moves to Ohio to campaign Tuesday and Wednesday, eventually rounding out the week in Washington, D.C. where he will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conferece (CPAC) on Friday. Romney has two rallies scheduled in Colorado Monday. Ron Paul holds to events in Minnesota.
