Santorum details new delegate math

As he struggles to keep up with frontrunner Mitt Romney and parries calls for him to drop out of the Republican presidential race, Rick Santorum has said in recent weeks that he has actually won more delegates than some media counts show. Those counts, Santorum says, are not taking into account Republican party rules, as well as the state-level meetings that actually determine how many delegates go to each candidate.

“Here’s one of the things that I can tell you I didn’t know,” Santorum told a small group of reporters at a breakfast in Washington Monday. “Every single state is different. Every state. Every single state is different. It’s different on how you get on the ballot. It’s different on their structure, how they allocate delegates, whether they are bound, whether they are unbound, when they’re committed, how long they committed, how they’re selected. Our math is actually based on the reality of what’s going on in the states.”

Now, the Santorum campaign is providing some numbers to flesh out the candidate’s claims. In a long conversation Wednesday evening, John Yob, the campaign’s national and state convention director, pointed out that many high-profile primaries have been little more than beauty contests, and that delegates in many key states are actually being awarded in county, district, and state conventions, which are often dominated by conservative activists. “In that process, we are doing very well,” said Yob. “The moderate candidate almost never performs better than a conservative candidate in a county, district, or state convention process.”

Many states are just now starting their conventions, and it is impossible to say precisely how many delegates each candidate will win. The Associated Press delegate count, widely cited in media stories, shows Romney with 568 delegates to Santorum’s 273, with Newt Gingrich at 135 and Ron Paul at 50. Yob’s count is significantly different: according to his estimate, Romney has 482 delegates to Santorum’s 331, with Gingrich at 158 and Paul at 91.

What accounts for the differences? First, the Santorum campaign believes that delegates from Florida and Arizona will ultimately be awarded proportionately, and not as winner-take-all contests. The AP account currently gives Romney all 50 Florida delegates and all 29 Arizona delegates. Santorum and Yob point to a recent article by Morton Blackwell, the longtime conservative activist and member of the Republican National Committee rules committee, suggesting that if the race is close, it is likely the party convention in Tampa this summer will award Florida and Arizona delegates proportionately. Doing so would not be a delegate gusher for Santorum, but it would lower Romney’s count, since Romney won both states and now has all the delegates in his column. In the end, Yob believes Romney will end up with 23 delegates in Florida and 14 in Arizona, for a combined loss of 42 delegates.

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore Creative Commons

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