Maybe. The New York Times reported Saturday that Mitt Romney’s campaign is gearing up for the long haul in their primary battle with Rick Santorum. Deep in the story is a nugget that applies to North Carolina:
Indeed, Mr. Romney’s campaign has warned donors and supporters that even with his victories in the coming contests, the Republican competition may very well last until at least the middle of May. They said the situation did not indicate diminishing prospects for Mr. Romney but rather was the result of the party’s delegate-allocation rules and the additional time those require for any candidate to accumulate the 1,144 delegates necessary to secure the nomination.
The acknowledgment that the intraparty competition will most likely continue into the spring would seem to sweep aside the Romney campaign’s hope that it could string together a series of early victories sufficient to claim the nominee’s mantle — symbolically, at least — and begin focusing exclusively on Mr. Obama.
North Carolina’s primary is May 8. Plenty hinges on primaries in Arizona and Michigan tomorrow — particularly the latter, which is Romney’s home state. Santorum has made inroads there of late, but his poll numbers have slipped after a poor performance in Wednesday’s debate.
The NYT article also notes Republicans’ angst over the prolonged primary and heated attacks between the two front runners. Recent history shows that a lengthy primary isn’t always a bad thing, though.
Remember that Obama and Hillary Clinton went the proverbial 10 rounds in the Democratic primary in 2008. The race dragged on until early June when Obama finally culled enough delegates to secure the nomination. And as those who followed the campaign will recall, it was a bruising primary in just about every conceivable way. The end result? In the general election, Obama won a comfortable 53 percent of the popular vote and 365 electoral votes.
