Super Tuesday Post Mortem

In the end it was a good night for Mr. Romney. Not a great night, but a good night. The seven contests I predicted all went as expected, although things ended up being closer than I expected in both Virginia and Vermont. He made up for that by winning all three of the toss up contests.


Ohio sat in the Santorum column most of the night, but Hamilton and Cuyahoga counties kept sitting out there. When they finally came in near the end of the night, it completely erased Mr. Santorum's 15,000 vote lead and catapulted Mr. Romney to a 12,000 vote win.

Idaho turned out to be a laugher. Mr. Santorum and Uncle Ron hung in and did manage to win 13 counties, but the Idaho rules stipulate that if any candidate gets over 50% of the delegates, he wins them all. So Mr. Romney swept Idaho and all 32 delegates.

Alaska was closer and there are no special rules there. The delegates will be allotted proportionately, giving Mr. Romney 8, Mr. Santorum 7, Uncle Ron 6, and Newt 3.

The results are still being digested in some states so the full delegate total updates won't be ready for a little while yet. At the moment, it appears that Mr. Romney has picked up 196 delegates, Mr. Santorum has picked up 80 delegates, Newt has picked up 72 delegates, and Uncle Ron has picked up 21 delegates. These allotments will change a little bit as the breakdowns per Congressional District clarified.

On a side note, Marcy Kaptur defeated Dennis Kucinich in OH-9. Also my old congresswoman, Jean Schmidt, lost her primary race to Brad Wenstrup in OH-2. He'll likely face off against David Smith, also a newcomer to the race.