Romney notches six Super Tuesday wins

Mitt Romney said Wednesday his six Super Tuesday victories, including a squeaker in Ohio, show his campaign for the Republican presidential nod is on track.

Romney took victories in Vermont, Massachusetts (where he was governor), Virginia (where he and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul were the only two candidates listed), Ohio, Idaho and Alaska. Rival ex-U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania won Tennessee, Oklahoma and North Dakota. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won Georgia, a state he represented in Congress for many years. Paul of Texas was shut out.

Romney beat Santorum by just 1 percentage point in Ohio, after trailing badly in the run-up to Super Tuesday but pointed to Tuesday's performance as evidence his campaign is on track.

Each victory helped Romney add to his count in the quest for the 1,144 delegates needed to win the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in August.

"We're counting up the delegates, and that looks good," Romney said Tuesday in Boston. "And we're counting down the days until November, and that looks even better."

The Hill reported Wednesday the possibility of a recount in Ohio loomed. An automatic recount is triggered if there is less than 0.25 percent difference between the top two candidates' vote totals.

CNN reported Wednesday morning that with 97 percent of the votes tallied Romney received 455,941 votes, 38 percent, and Santorum got 443,584, 37 percent.

Santorum's wins in Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota, as well as his close loss in Ohio, highlighted his ability to draw conservative and blue-collar voters to his cause, The Washington Post reported. While Romney may be winning more delegates, so far he hasn't been able to win the party's passion the way Santorum has.

"We're going to win a few. We're going to lose a few," Santorum told supporters at an election-night gathering in Steubenville, Ohio.

The win in Georgia meant Gingrich's campaign lives on. He had acknowledged to CNN before Tuesday a failure to win Georgia could end his campaign.

In Atlanta, Gingrich told supporters Tuesday he was the better choice to face President Obama in November because Romney's strategy of financially overwhelming his opponents in the primaries wouldn't hold up against Obama in the general election.

"What you have to have is somebody who knows what they believe, understands how to articulate it so that it cuts through all the media … and has the guts to take the president head-on every single time he's wrong," Gingrich said.

The Post said nationwide exit polls indicated two broad trends about GOP voters.

First: Many still are less-than-enthused about the candidates, with more than four in 10 voters in Ohio and Tennessee saying they voted "with reservations."

Second: GOP voters are divided about what the top priority should be -- ideology or electability, the Post said.

While nearly four in 10 voters in Tennessee said the ability to beat Obama is the most important attribute, nearly as many said they wanted a candidate who was a "true conservative" or someone with strong moral character. Romney fits the first group and Santorum, the second.

"Super Tuesday was a super mess. Romney's organization can produce results and delegates, but they are having a tough time overcoming Santorum's passionate supporters," GOP strategist Tyler Harber told The Hill. "Super Tuesday demonstrated that the race for the Republican nomination is far from being over, and that helps keep the heat off Obama for the time being."