Romney keeps adding delegates

March 6 was Super Tuesday with ten states holding their primaries or caucuses. The four republican candidates were fighting for the nearly 400 delegates that were up for grabs. Super Tuesday delivers the most delegates in a single day of the primary season with only April 24 and June 4 coming close with both of them having over 200 delegates each. To gain the republican nomination a candidate needs to obtain 1144 delegates out of the nearly 2300. After Super Tuesday, former Governor Mitt Romney added six more states under his belt, extending his delegate lead. Former Senator Rick Santorum added three states bringing his delegate total up to 176, but still more than 200 delegates behind front runner Mitt Romney. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich was only able to win his home state of Georgia but his is still ahead of Representative Ron Paul who has yet to win a primary or caucus. While there is still over 1500 delegates still up for grabs, as I said before, Romney appears to be on his way to the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination. The race is technically far from over though; there are still enough delegates in play for any of the four remaining candidates to win the nomination. Big states like California, New York and Texas have yet to hold their primaries and a win in those states could propel even Ron Paul up the ladder. Rick Santorum supporters started calling for Newt to step down, so a real conservative could take down Mitt Romney but so far Newt has not obliged. Romney’s camp has been calling on all the other candidates to step down so he can focus on beating Obama in November. Despite bringing up the rear, it does not look like Ron Paul or his supporters will let him step down. There are still enough delegates left for any on the candidates to technically be able to grab the nomination. Ron Paul would basically need to run the table to win the nomination, while it’s technically possible it’s also unlikely based on the fact that he has not won one contest to date. While the race is not technically over, Mitt Romney seems to have the nomination wrapped up. Primaries and caucuses held on March 10 continued the same trend; Romney won the majority of the contests while Santorum only managed one, Gingrich and Paul were unable to win any states. Tuesday, March 13 has another group of states holding their primaries and another chance for one of the candidates to cut into Romney’s lead. As always, check my examiner column here for links.