When Mitt Romney talked about his struggle to win over Southern voters on a Birmingham, Ala., radio show Thursday morning, the former Massachusetts governor joked about his weakness as a candidate below the Mason-Dixon line.
“I realize that it’s a bit of an away game,” Romney told WAPI’s Leland Whaley.
Recommended Stories
But the problem could be a far more serious one for Romney, who is heading into one of the most difficult few weeks on the campaign trail with contests in Kansas, Mississippi and Alabama, among others, that are likely to favor his opponent, Rick Santorum.
So Romney’s backers are working hard to get around his Southern problem by enlisting the support of establishment Republicans, who are endorsing Romney in areas where he is weak, and by insisting that no other candidate in the race, including Santorum, could now secure enough convention delegates to win the nomination.
“We are going to lose some states in March but we will keep adding to our delegate totals,” Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told The Washington Examiner. “We’re following a plan. Part of that plan was winning Super Tuesday, and part of it merely requires us to accumulate delegates under proportional rules. We are successfully executing against our plan, even when we don’t come in first.”
Romney, who is way ahead of Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul in the delegate count, won’t take any contest for granted, supporters said. While Romney campaigns intensely in Mississippi and Alabama in the coming days, his son, Matt, will be visiting Saipan, in the Northern Marianas, on Friday and to shake hands with caucus-goers on Guam on Saturday. The island territories have nine delegates each, nowhere near the 90 delegates at stake between Mississippi and Alabama.
“This shows that it is a fight for every single delegate,” said Alex Patton, a Republican strategist and pollster in Florida.
The Romney camp this week issued a memo that nudged Gingrich or Santorum to drop out of the race, arguing that they can’t overcome Romney, who has 430 delegates compared with 185 for Santorum and 106 for Gingrich.
“Governor Romney now has more than twice as many delegates as Sen. Santorum and four times more than Speaker Gingrich,” Romney’s staff said in a memo given to reporters. “Neither opponent succeeded in closing his delegate deficit [on Super Tuesday], and the calendar ahead offers them dwindling opportunities to close the gap.”
Despite those calculations, Romney faces a strenuous task in Southern primaries and caucuses, underscoring his weaknesses as a candidate who can’t win over the Republican base.
Political observers in Alabama expect Romney to lose to Santorum, whose openness about his faith gives him an edge with many evangelical voters who question Romney’s Mormon faith.
“I think Santorum is going to end up making some waves down here and catching some momentum,” said Cliff Sims, a Republican strategist in Alabama and author of the popular blog, yellowhammerpolitics.com.
A Santorum super-PAC, Red, White, and Blue Fund, will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads in both Mississippi and Alabama.
Romney, meanwhile, announced endorsements Thursday from former Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, a state that votes March 17. Santorum holds a clear advantage there, having won the state’s non-binding primary last month.
