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As Rick Santorum tries to gain ground on Mitt Romney in the race for Republican delegates, Santorum’s late start in states other than Iowa continues to make it hard for him to compete for every potential delegate.
Santorum will not compete for delegates in four of Illinois’ 18 congressional districts, meaning he is only eligible to win 44 of the state’s 54 delegates at stake tonight.
But it could have been even worse.
Copies of Santorum delegate petitions provided to NBC News by the Illinois State Board of Elections also show that in 10 other districts, Santorum did not have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. (In Illinois, a GOP candidate needs three people -- in most districts -- willing to be a delegate, plus 600 signatures to get on the ballot.)
The only way, however, for a candidate to be deemed ineligible is for a campaign to contest the signatures. In other words, the state is not going to check them unless a campaign officially asks it to do so.
The Romney campaign initially did challenge Santorum’s petitions in January, but dropped it after the Santorum campaign agreed to drop similar contests of Romney delegates, according to Jon Zahm, Santorum’s Illinois state director.
Santorum's campaign said it challenged the Romney delegates, because the petitions were notarized in Massachusetts, according to Zahm. (It's unclear, however, if that's the case or if notarizing out of state would have made the petitions invalid.)
While candidates run in a non-binding statewide primary in Illinois, the delegates run individually in congressional districts with their pledged presidential candidate printed next to their name. According to Illinois election law, each delegate must submit a petition to the State Board of Elections with at least 600 signatures in order to run.
The copies of Santorum’s petitions reveal he had fewer than 600 signatures in districts one, two, three, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, and 18. In seven of those districts, the petitions had fewer than half the required signatures.
Illinois is not the first state where a missed filing deadline has caused Santorum to lose out on delegates. On Super Tuesday, the Santorum campaign failed to meet filing deadlines in Ohio and Virginia causing the former Pennsylvania senator to forego competing for at least 55 delegates. Early next month, Santorum also failed to get on the ballot in the District of Columbia, where he will forego another 16 delegates in the district’s April 3 primary.
The delegate problems come in the context of a campaign where Santorum already faces a large delegate deficit. Based on delegates allotted by NBC News, Mitt Romney has 444 delegates, more than twice Santorum’s count of 183. (The state of Wyoming today switched one more delegate from Santorum to Romney.)
Santorum would have to significantly outperform his results so far in order to catch Romney and even approach getting the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination.
Ballot difficulties
It is not easy to meet ballot access requirements in many states, and Illinois is only the latest example the Santorum campaign has seen of getting a late start in launching a national campaign.
The Santorum campaign did not start its Illinois effort in earnest until late December, according to Zahm, and had only a couple of weeks to get on the state’s primary ballot. In fact, given the late start and lack of a large paid staff in Illinois, it is a testament to Santorum’s volunteers in the state that he is on the ballot at all.
“We started Dec. 23rd,” says Zahm. “We had a two-week campaign to get on the ballot.”
From there, the Santorum campaign faced significant difficulty. With candidates’ delegates running as individuals in each congressional district, the Santorum campaign faced an uphill battle gathering enough signatures for their slates of delegates in such a short amount of time.
In other words, it’s not enough getting the candidate on the statewide ballot; the campaign had to work hard to identify people who would run as delegates and then get hundreds of Illinois Republicans to sign their petitions.
Santorum did not even submit delegate slates, any signatures at all, in the fourth, fifth, and seventh congressional districts -- and a human error resulted in the campaign failing to get on the ballot in the state’s 13th district as well.
As campaign volunteers rushed to get all of the petitions submitted to the State Board of Elections by the 5:00 pm CT deadline on Friday, Jan. 5, volunteers left one of the petition envelopes unopened, and it was mistakenly thrown away. By the time the campaign tried to rectify the mistake with the elections office, the deadline had already passed and Santorum delegates could not get on the ballot.
Contested delegates
Suspecting the Santorum campaign did not have enough signatures, the Romney campaign challenged the petitions of Santorum delegates in the 10 congressional districts where copies of the petitions show Santorum did not, in fact, have enough signatures.
In response, Zahm counter-challenged and filed contests against the Romney delegates, arguing the Romney delegate petitions were notarized by a notary in Massachusetts, which made the petitions invalid. Ultimately, both sides dropped their contests.
“I let the Romney people know I was going after them on that,” Zahm said. “They eventually came to me and asked me to withdraw that complaint as long as they withdrew theirs.”
Romney state chairman Dan Rutherford, also Illinois treasurer, was not available to comment, but Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul simply said the campaign decided not to force Santorum’s delegates off the ballot.
“Senator Santorum outright failed to qualify to be on the ballot in four congressional districts in Illinois,” said Saul in an email to NBC News. “However, in other districts where he fell short, it would have been incumbent on us or another campaign to force him off the ballot. We decided against doing that.”
Saul blamed Santorum’s ballot problems on his own campaign.
“All of Sen. Santorum’s ballot-access problems have been a result of his own organizational failures,” Saul continued.
Santorum’s path ahead
The Santorum campaign acknowledges it will be difficult for any campaign to get to 1,144 delegates with four candidates in the race but remains confident they can still make inroads in the delegate race. In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Santorum adviser John Yob, brought on by the campaign as a delegate strategist, said there is a path for the former Pennsylvania senator to get to 1,144.
According to Yob, the campaign rests its delegate strategy on over-performing in May contests like Arkansas, Kentucky, and Texas and then picking up delegates in states like Iowa and Minnesota, which held caucuses earlier, but do not actually bind delegates until county and state conventions in April and May.
As for the organizational deficiencies, Santorum himself said the campaign struggled with the arcane rules of states with early deadlines, but that the organization now is in good shape.
“It’s amazing that we’re on the ballots we are – given how difficult these rules are from state to state and how different they are and the fact that we used volunteers to get this done in December,” Santorum contended on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Monday. “Since that time, of course, we’ve been fine. We’re getting on the ballots and, of course, as you’ve seen, our organization is pretty darn good.”
As for tonight’s primary in Illinois, Zahm thinks Santorum can still make a good showing despite starting at an initial delegate disadvantage.
“There’s 14 districts we’re competing in,” Zahm said. “My campaign plan calls for winning 10 of them. If we win 10, we’ll win 10 out of 18 and we’ll have a majority.”
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It's being reported an all time low voter turnout...
I know my polling place resembled a ghost town.
One other thing of interest - early voting has also been down which in the past has helped Willard limp across the finish line - think FL!
Stay tuned...
Fisty..that is because of your home town, like most of Illinois, everyone is scared to go out because they might be shot dead. How's that Govenor you voted to put in doing...I bet all those taxes he promised to raise have really paid off.
What? Nobody wanted to come out and vote for their favorite clown? Amazing!!
Fuzzy...it's Illinois, everyone is scared to go out after dark.
Bob#'s - Quit projecting. Not everyone is a bigoted little sissy boy like you.
Don't know what cave your living in Bob,
but Illinois is in the Midwest and its a bright, warm, sunny day. It doesn't get dark until well after the polls close at 7:00pm local time.
Of course, most Republicans have been in the dark since 1964, so your comment doesn't surprise me.
Bob, you are ignorant of the facts. No one is scared to go out after dark. The majority of Illinois is a safe as you can be. Learn a little something will you?
I guess the only honest campaign was Ron Paul's, and he's too much of a real gentlemen to challenge his opponent's nominating petitions.
He knows that although he could win the battle by knocking out all three of the remaining challengers, he's better off winning the war by challenging their ideas or I should say their lack of ideas.
JDilp...You forget...Chicago you racist!
Low turnouts have favored Santorum.
bob -- maybe if you actually visited chicago you might change your mind. the central hub of chicago has great museums and restaurants, bars and entertainment, which can be enjoyed all hours of the night and day without fear of being mugged. don't listen to fox news and flush.
mrpotatohead - oh so true! I spent part of the past weekend downtown and all I can say is it is one amazing city even after all these years!
Poor bob's to afraid to leave his trailer park...
feisty --- that just might be old bobs problem. he needs to live it up a little.
bob .. do the people of Illinois really only vote after dark?.
Bob, exactly where are the polls open after dark?
Dirp, if Paul could win why didn't he even come to Illinois? Bet he gets 5% again.
From the sounds of this, even Rickey thought he would be out by now!
Rickey can't run a campaign and he wants to run the country?
The first four words of #1.6 summed it up om Bob.
Santorum is his own worst enemy.
We should all be grateful that this theocrat wannabee is as inept as he is closed-minded.
Quit the race and quit being a hypocrite, Icky Ricky. You have a sick child who needs you. The rest of us only need you to STFU.
"Santorum is a extremely dangerous loose Nut to have next to the "N" button" His insanity is very Scary.
Poor little Rickey Santorum, this running a national campaign is hard and he just can't get it organized. He thought if he just had faith, delegates would multiply like fishes and bread.
Since polls seem to be wrong in every primary so far. I guess anything can happen tonight. I'm so curious who will turn out. I suspect it will be Santorum supporters.
PA ..just made new rules ..for voters .. they wont go into effect until after the primary .. but they will be in effect for the general election .. the problem was that no one could find any voter fraud .. but the Rs in PA believe there might be some so now if you dont have a valid photo ID you cant vote .. with less than 50%of the population in PA voteing the new law will bring that down to less than 30% there goes some peoples chance to participate in their constitutional right ..if you cant vote you do not have a right to liberty and the American dream
independent jim: In my state we have to show a photo ID to vote, so what's the big deal. If you're a citizen you can get a picture ID and it doesn't have to be a drivers license.
You know, I really don't understand the huge backlash against showing ID. In my home state of Ohio that has been the case since I started voting in 1975. In my case, it has always been a driver's license, but there are state photo ID's for those who don't drive.
Anything more is probably a waste of taxpayer money; anything less would lead to the type of voter fraud we saw in the 20's with names from the local cemeteries voting.
Are you really saying that 20% of the population of Pa doesn't have ID? Save your energy for things that matter.
I don't know if the Amish vote but they would likely not have an ID.
It's interesting to note that Rick Santorum can't even carry the Catholic vote.
The 'big deal' about having to show photo ID is that it costs money to get one, it requires a lot of paperwork, and it requires about 2 or 3 hours to apply and wait in line. They have to have childcare to go apply. Many voters don't have cars, so it is difficult for them to get to the application site.
It's intended to make low-income people decide it's just too much of a bother to vote. It's a lot easier to stay home on election day.
For a middle class person with a job and a driver's license, it's hard to comprehend what an ordeal it can be for an unemployed person with poor English skills to go get a photo ID.
"Rickety is not the solution, he is the problem"
In many states these are GOP proposals, and they are also proposing in many states that student IDs would not be valid for voting.
You know which party college students tend to vote for?
That's the reason people should be pissed.
Sounds like Santorum could have used the help of a (dare I say it?) community organizer......
JoAnne---I remember during the election of 2008, people asked what had candidate Obama ever run? Part of my answer was, well, he's run a multi-million dollar campaign organization to overtake the better-funded front-runner. This would be met with derision. Now we see that the Republican campaigns have all had problems running cleanly.
These knuckleheads can't even run a good, clean campaign. Why in the HE!! would anybody allow them to try to run this country?
No, some funds would probably been helpful to both him and Gingrich. I noticed that Illinois required more signatures per district than Virginia and that these signatures needed to be in by december to get on the ballot. In December Santorum was struggling to get 2 - 3% support. Heck, I wasn't even paying attention to him either. The system favors those who move early and have money, something neither Gingrich or Santorum had back in December.
Or maybe a Constitutional Law professor from a world renown university?
I don't think a community ogranizer would help Santorum. Voter ID laws might, or they might not. After all, if Santorum can't even find 600 signatures in a district that aren't even challenged, how does he expect to win a nationwide vote? If there was voter ID, then Santorum would really and truly be SOL, along with the rest of the Republican candidates. That's what I get out of their failure to find even imaginary voters to qualify for a ballot.
One of the reasons Obama is so effective--despite all the roadblocks he has encountered-- is that he's smart enough to enlist people who know how to run a successful campaign.
That so many people oppose such a steady, competent, and dedicated leader is disheartening at times. Nonetheless, we soldier on for the good of everyone, even the clueless opposition.
"Santorum is spreading his disease to the Fox"
These primaries are like watching the end of the old movie WarGames where "Joshua" is finally simulating a nuclear war. Round after round, Joshua futilly plays the game and time and again it ends in a stalemate with no clear winner.
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"
the Dick Cheneys of the world don't get the last commet by the computer in WarGames. Most Hawks do not. Luckily most people are sane, like you and me, and get it.
"60 years of playing chess"
<singing>
Oh, the Merry-Go-Round broke down,
And it made the darndest sound.
The lights went low, we both said "Oh!",
And the Merry-Go-Round went,
"Um-pah-pah! Um-pah-pah! Um-pah! Um-pah! Um-pah-pah-pah!"
When they get these antiquated rules to run in any state and truely open all primaries so each individual can vote instead of having to get a Republican or Democratic ballot these problems will persist. We don't have a truely Free Election in this country. It's all rigged by the Parties and the Powers that be. Ican't vote because I won't have some political party deciding who I should vote for.
Then you also have NO right to bitch!
Complaining from the sidelines solves nothing!
If you don't like the system, truly you should run, get into office and change the rules.
Force your state to allow a NONE OF THE ABOVE or NO VOTE option on your ballots, then cast that vote to let the two parties (and any minority party as well), as well as all of the individual candidates that you can't personally support, know that none of them deserve your vote. You have met your constitutional right to cast a ballot and informed the candidates of your position on their candidacy.
"WARNING" Santorum is a right-wing extremist bible thumping weird Wacko that was setup by the Kocheads and the Tea Retards to be their jerk.
Thats great news Fiesty! If they hold a voting booth, and nobody vote for these two brain dead individuals, we all win! OBAMA/BIDEN 2012!!!
There is one way to eliminate this "delegate" problem. Push the petition drive of the Popular Amendment Movement (faircampaignreform(dot)us), where there will be NO party conventions to select the candidates, and just ONE NATIONAL PRIMARY DATE just eight weeks before the general election...One Man/One Vote rule enforced. Every candidate would know the rules in each state because it would be the same rules with the same petition deadline (60 days prior to the primary date.) See Section 2 below:
Petition for US Constitutional Amendment For Election Reform
We, the undersigned US citizens, duly registered voters in our respective states/territories, do hereby petition for our state to approve the following amendment to the United States Constitution by the method noted below.
Election Reform:
1. Abolish the Electoral College (Repeal Amendment 12)
2. ONE NATIONAL primary date to be held on the Tuesday eight (8) weeks prior to the General Election day for Congressional offices and for the President. Candidate petitions must be filed with the local/state elections boards 60 days prior to the Primary Election date. Federal election petitions shall be uniform in every state and shall include a “contract with the voters” that spells out clearly what that candidate stands for on all issues that they may have to address in elected office. They shall be held accountable in court for breach of that contract if elected and any/all terms are not met.
3. NO campaigning allowed for any elective federal office more than 60 days prior to the National Primary Date.
4. NO campaign contribution shall be donated to any candidate of more than $200 from an individual or $500 maximum from a family (spouses/children living in the same household.) No donations shall be made to a candidate more than sixty days prior to the primary date. No candidate shall contribute from their own funds more than 60% of the total donations from other private individuals.
5. NO campaign contribution from any PAC, corporation, union, non-profit organization, special interest group, etc. shall be allowed for any elected federal office.
6. NO third party campaigning (separate PAC ads, corporate ads, etc.) for/against any candidate shall be allowed at any time during or before the election season.
7. NO party conventions shall be held to select the presidential candidates. The selection must be done at the ballot box in the primary election.
8. The One Man/One Vote Supreme Court ruling shall be enforced by this Amendment, namely that NO federal candidate selection shall be by any means other than the ballot box on Primary/General Election Dates.
9. National Party Organizations shall NOT raise money for or donate to specific candidates of their party prior to the dates outlined above.
10. PAC’s shall NOT be granted tax-exempt status by the IRS, and any non-profit organization who uses their funding for political purposes shall lose their tax-exempt status.
11. All lobbyists shall be outlawed from influencing Congress at all times.
This amendment shall be approved ONLY by State Constitutional Conventions to be called within 90 days of this petition being submmitted to a state’s Secretary of State. A minimum of 25% of the registered voters in each state shall be required to further this petition to the respective Secretary of State.
Name Signature State Address
Petition for US Constitutional Amendment For Congressional Term Limits
We, the undersigned US citizens, duly registered voters in our respective states/territories, do hereby petition for our state to approve the following amendment to the United States Constitution by the method noted below.
Term Limits for Congress:
1. Representatives to Congress shall serve no more than two two-year terms in the House.
2. Senators shall be elected to no more than two six year terms in the Senate.
3. No elected official shall serve more than six terms in office in any combined elected offices (House/Senate/Presidency.)
This amendment shall be approved ONLY by State Constitutional Conventions to be called within 90 days of this petition being submmitted to a state’s Secretary of State. A minimum of 25% of the registered voters in each state shall be required to further this petition to the respective Secretary of State.
Name Signature State Address
Anti-trust - your solution favors dictators.
Look ! I don't think small states should even have a vote period ! Kansas,Nebraska, the Dakota's, Montana ! and most of the south ! why allow these people a vote ! they are backwards idiots ! add very little to America except a bunch of religious fools !
anti : yes i agree with your post ! give America back to the people and not corporation and the wealthy millionaires
Are you from another planet? Our system may not be perfect but it's alot better than so many other countries. The United States is still the greatest place to live.
So schooldog, which LARGE, SMART state do you reside? Oh! I see, you're still in boarding school, possibly the 3rd grade and much too young to vote ........ so why worry your feeble little brain about who should and who should not vote! Go back to your sandbox!
How do these two amendments favor dictators, DB??? The ECFR puts the power in the hands of the voters because it bans all corporate, union, non-profit, PAC/SuperPAC, etc. influence, financially and media-oriented (ads).
Andy Borowitz says that Santorum made his first sweater vest himself, when he tore the arms off his strait-jacket.
I know that has nothing to do with this article, but I'm just sick of the news and thought a good laugh was in order.
Antitrustproponent, why the hell hasn't this been enacted?
The "election reforms" antitrust espouses are patently unconstitutional.
oh please. Who do you work for, the Kochs?
Several very lovely countries including England do things more or less in this fashion.
It certainly would be a refreshing change from the elections being bought and sold before they even begin.
What is unconstitutional about either of these proposed amendments to the Constitution? After all, the Constitution allows for such amendments to be voted upon. Have you really read and understood what the Constitution contains, apost8?
DfromSpencer, I'd like to know that answer myself. I've been promoting this petition drive here on Newsvine since I helped put the website together in early 8/10. What has everyone been doing for the past 19 months? If you have been reading my posts all of this time and haven't yet downloaded, signed, and circulated the petitions and helped form a grassroots organization in your community, then you are part of the reason neither petition has advanced to the point of constitutional conventions to vote on, and hopefully pass them.
Yeah. Let's compare the candidates we have to choose from in analogy,
would you rather?? :
Go to Church every day, go to Work everyday, go to Divorce Work everyday, or go to some undecided place everyday... That's what we have to choose from... Romney is the only possible choice. Santorum is nuts, Gingrich is a lying cheat of a man who can't seem to stay married, and Paul just wants us to all get along. I'd vote for Romney or even Ron if he would get the nomination, but I'll switch my party in an instant if Santorum or Gingrich gets the bid... Our country needs to move forward and advance, not be throw back to the medieval days of witch hunts by "christians against EVERYONE" and we don't need a president who doesn't practice what he preaches (Hypocrite). Romney is much better, and Ron would be the best choice, but again, Only Romney has a chance to win...
Sorry, Rick. If you didn't get enough signatures, people didn't want you.
I thought Santorum had God on his side? I guess God is more concerned with voter's Vaginas than paperwork , (not that I'm comparing myself to God)
Anybody but MITT!!! Most really don't understand the mormon philosophy. I lived there over 10 long years and I would not vote for a mormon to be a dog catcher. I will actively campaign for Obama only if Mitt gets the nomination. Otherwise, let the best man win.
Seriously, Mitt being Mormon is the last thing you should be worrying about. The guy has no real stance on any of the issues--he'll say anything to appease voters, and it's impossible to tell what he would do in office. Oh, and he strapped his poor dog on top of his car for about 10 hours.
In most cases decades-old election rules that nobody else seems to have a problem with; and this is the guy who's gonna single-handedly fix the economy and win all the wars.
Foreign Policies
Upset Israel, England, etc.
How is President Peace keeper Obamanation doing for you?? Now that he has us in 7 and possibly 2 more wars
Insuring 1000 of guns were sold to Mexican Most wanted Drug cartel after to try and attack the 2nd amendment (when bust stated did not know) despite all top adminstration talking about the Stores on boarder selling guns to the cartel. ( he was the one in charge, if you think he did not know you are a totally idiot)
Domestic Policies
How is that $4.00 Gallon helping our Country? Obama asking Saudi to up oil production while he pushes EPA to stop domestic and drilling on Federal land. He gave 3 Billion to George Sora Brazil and Mexica oil companies while stopping drilling in the gulf.
How is that NO CHOICE Obamacare, that we need to pass for we can see what is in it ? Re-adjusted cost now is now upto 2 Trillion of your childrens and grandchildrens money. With Grandma being told oh you are just to costly. But hey Grandma we can help you with that abortion. More companies are talking about opting out and paying fine, and medicare will be slammed even Democrats admit.
Got to love those Green business at tax payers expense.
The fake help the housing market ( gave roughly 80 billion) of the 4 Trillion spent to actually the Housing market. The other went to the Banks and his crownies. The banks have since gave it back because his push was to make them do the same thing that cause the problem. Mandate to give loans to those who could not afford them.
By the way Barney Frank and his male lover and Freddie was the ones who cause that mess in the first place.
Maybe you love the Majority Senate Leader Reed who thinks we do not need a budget. at 16 Trillion and growing at 100 Billion a month. Ok as long as you want to see the US resemble Greece. Otherwise we need majore finance reform.
Not over spend 6 trillion in 4 years with a promise to pay back 3 in 10 years, Obama business smarts strikes again.
his business smarts is like my luck both should guess and what ever it is we guess pick the other. Heck he gave our Trillions and each time the market went negative 200 points plus. But did he pay attention nope. His statement we need to Throw more of your childrens money at it.
Obama is the worst Change
Insuring 1000 of guns were sold to Mexican Most wanted Drug cartel
That started under Bush and was hidden from two administrations. The big problem there is the secrecy that some of our government is allowed to work under. Full and disclosure of everything!
Obama asking Saudi to up oil production while he pushes EPA to stop domestic and drilling on Federal land.
From the NY Times: The oil and gas industry has nearly 7,200 permits to drill on public lands that it has yet to use, according to Bureau of Land Management data
Who is holding up drilling? The oil companies are deliberately limiting supply to keep gas expensive.
I could debunk every point your brought up but it is sooo useless to spout facts at someone determined to ignore them. So let's just concentrate on the last one:
Obama is the worst Change
Well, let's see:
BLS data show that 4.4 million jobs were lost in Bush's last year in office.
The US has experienced 17 months WITHOUT job losses since September 2010. We have ADDED 2,812,000 jobs during those 17 months.
The DJIA was at 8776 on Dec 31, 2008. It closed today at 13,170.
This is Change I can live with right now. Frankly, I don't think the country could survive another Republican dominated government.
Vote Democratic this Fall...
Democraps just want ( tax more ) to spend all your money on their minoirty voters.
Funny -- most teatards aren't smart enough to know their federal taxes have gone down since 2009.
Democraps party of tax you until you are on welfare
@FEISTY DEADHEAD: Time to take your meds and go nighty night, tomorrow is another day where you can sit outside the mental hospital, get on your laptop and post more unimportant posts!!!
...and if you don't win Illinois Ricky ?
"Bzzzzzzt",...."De-niiiiiied".
Newt who ?
If you can't run an effective campaign, how can you suggest you could run the U.S.?
"Its time for the little boy to step down"
http://news.yahoo.com/report-texas-state-senator-office-firebombed-012030564.html
Here is one from the hate and fear party.
How many other incidences of hate and terrorism are being suppressed by the BIG BUSINESS right-wing media?
Next thing you know they will be shooting Democrats in Congress.
The right-wing mobs, especially the propaganda organ falsely claiming to be journalists, are nothing short of hate groups rallying angry mobs and inciting violence.
I fear this is just the beginning for this election cycle.
No American is safe from these right-wing hate mongers and terrorists until every last one is removed from office - elected and appointed - and their disinformation and propaganda machine silenced and held accountable for all their crimes against the United States and the American people.
santorum is an idoit
The guy that dosent't care about the poor
Vs.
The guy that doesn't care about the unemployed
Vs.
The guy that doesn't care about his marriage vows
Vs.
The guy that doesn't care about foreign policy
Well, Jimmy-crack-corn, I don't care about them either
At least the GOP message is consistent: THEY DON'T CARE
Illionois could have been worse for Santorum? Well, Santorum would DEFINITELY be worse for the country than Romney, so turn about's fair play, I guess.
"Santorum is on his last leg, its time for this loser to Go"