The race between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum for the Republican presidential nomination was fought down to the wire in Ohio, and so was the result, with Romney leading by a mere 12,000 votes early today.
But with 99 percent of the vote counted, that lead was certain to hold, and more importantly, so was Romney’s clear victory in amassing delegates.
Romney also won primaries on Tuesday in Virginia, Vermont and Massachusetts, and the Idaho caucuses.
Santorum won contests in Tennessee, North Dakota and Oklahoma, however, and got enough support from evangelical and anti-abortion Republicans in Ohio that he could continue his march to subsequent primaries with the mantle of a social conservative.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who once represented Georgia in Congress, easily carried that state’s primary. But he was performing poorly in Ohio and was unlikely to qualify for any of its delegates, as was Texas congressman Ron Paul.
……The Republican nomination will be cinched by whichever candidate amasses 1,144 delegates. The importance of Super Tuesday was evident in other numbers: Before Tuesday, 353 delegates had already been won, with Romney having the most.
But 419 more delegates were at stake on Tuesday, from Ohio, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia, Idaho, North Dakota and Alaska. Ohio had 63 of those, not counting 3 more delegates who are not bound to any candidate and do not have to announce support until the convention.
http://www.cleveland.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/03/mitt_romney_wins_ohio_republic.html
And the best news:
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur clobbered fellow Rep. Dennis Kucinich on Tuesday, her solid victory a stunning end to a mean-spirited primary between Democratic heavyweights.
With nearly all precincts reporting, Kaptur led Kucinich 55 percent to 41 percent. Graham Veysey, a Cleveland entrepreneur making his first run for public office, was a distant third with about 4 percent of the vote.
Kaptur, a longtime Toledo congresswoman, appeared to be sewing up the nomination with an overwhelmingly strong performance on her Lucas County turf. With about 85 percent of the votes counted there, she had outpaced Kucinich, an eight-term congressman and former Cleveland mayor, by a lopsided margin of 90 percentage points.
Returns from Cuyahoga County showed Kucinich was unable to run up the score as high on his home field, where he finished with about 72 percent of the vote. And with nearly all precincts tabulated in Lorain County, Kaptur maintained a 4-point edge over Kucinich in that central battleground.
At a labor hall in Toledo, Kaptur thanked her local supporters for standing by her for 30 years. She expressed hope that a 16th term would pave the way for her to become the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/03/marcy_kaptur_scores_huge_victo.html
Gawd, Kucinich is FINALLY gone from the Ohio district he destroyed. But Kaptur is a run-of-the-mill leftwingnut liberal, so her election has likely replaced one embarrassing moonbat with another. We’ll see how bad she is compared to Kucinich. In the meantime, Dennis can return to planet lunatic and endlessly mumble to himself about UFOs.
Related articles
- Congress Loses Its Most Liberal Member: Dennis Kucinich Was Defeated In Ohio (businessinsider.com)