WASHINGTON,Febrauary9,2012(AP):Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum shrugged off his also-ran status with strong victories in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri, riding a wave of distrust of Mitt Romney’s conservative credentials and stalling — for the time, at least — Romney’s seemingly inevitable march to the nomination.Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, has hammered the former Massachusetts governor as being too moderate to satisfy deeply conservative Republicans and their desire to shut the White House doors to a second Obama term. While Santorum remains a long-shot candidate, his sweep again drove home Romney’s inability to win the hearts of the conservative Republican base, which distrusts his thinking on sensitive issues such as abortion and gay rights after he once held more moderate views. The wins also pushed former front-runner Newt Gingrich, a former House of Representatives speaker, further out of the spotlight with a reminder that the campaign remains more than a two-man race. Gingrich is hoping that Super Tuesday, when 10 states that include his Southern base take their turn at nominating contests, will bring him back next month. The Republican nomination fight many in the party hoped would soon resolve itself now threatened to rumble past those Super Tuesday votes on March 6. Santorum told MSNBC on Wednesday that Tuesday’s results showed Romney was not the best candidate to take on Obama, who is “oppressing and taking away our freedoms, our political freedoms.” He told CNN that the hugely wealthy Romney, a former venture capitalist, “had a great career in the private sector, but we’re not running for CEO of the country. We’re running for someone who can lead the country.” Santorum has little of the money and organizational support that Romney has, making it difficult for him to build on the new momentum. But he told CNN he thought his campaign raised a quarter-million dollars online Tuesday night. “If money made the difference, we would not have won four primaries so far,” he said. Romney shrugged off his poor showing, but his losses in all three contests laid bare his stubborn weakness with conservatives despite back-to-back victories last week in Florida and Nevada. “I want to congratulate Sen. Santorum, but I expect to become the nominee with your help,” Romney told supporters Tuesday. When Romney ran for the Republican nomination four years ago, he prevailed in Minnesota and Colorado. The Republican Party has become more conservative in both states since then. The victories were the first for Santorum since he eked out a 34-vote win over Romney in the leadoff Iowa caucuses a month ago. Santorum faded far from the lead in the primaries and caucuses since Iowa, and Gingrich seemed to eclipse him as the leading conservative rival to Romney when he won the South Carolina primary late last month. Gingrich was marshaling resources for the multiple primaries on March 6 and stayed out of sight as the results rolled in Tuesday night. Libertarian-leaning Texas congressman Ron Paul, meanwhile, reveled in his second-place win in Minnesota and vowed to keep collecting delegates to take to the Republican Party national convention in August. Returns from 95 percent of Minnesota’s caucus precincts showed Santorum with 45 percent support, Paul with 27 percent and Romney with 17 percent. Gingrich trailed with 11 percent. It was closer in Colorado, where returns from all the precincts showed Santorum with 40 percent of the vote to 35 percent for Romney. Gingrich had 13 percent, and Paul claimed 12 percent. With all the precincts counted in Missouri, Santorum had 55 percent of the vote, followed by Romney with 25 percent. Paul had 12 percent, while Gingrich wasn’t on the ballot. The Missouri primary was nonbinding with no delegates at stake, Missouri’s delegates to the party’s national nominating convention will be chosen in caucuses beginning next month. There were 37 Republican National Convention delegates at stake in Minnesota and 33 more in Colorado. Santorum’s victories in Minnesota and Colorado gave him at least 28 delegates, pushing him past Gingrich into second place in the delegate count. Romney scored at least six delegates. Overall, Romney has 107 delegates. Santorum has 45, Gingrich has 32 and Paul has nine. The nominee needs to amass at least 1,144 delegates.
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