Ohio ‘Ground Zero’ for Super Tuesday, Santorum Leading

“There’s no state that can shout louder. You are the biggest state. You’ve got the biggest trove of delegates,” Santorum told the Brown County Republican Party on Friday night per the AP. “This is ground zero; Ohio.”

Rick Santorum is riding a wave of momentum a couple weeks before the March 6 Super Tuesday Primary. The most recent Rasmussen poll conducted late last week showed Santorum with 42 percent. Mitt Romney came in at a distant second with 24 percent in the statewide telephone survey of likely Republican voters.

It capped off a week that saw one of Romney’s nationwide leads evaporate and one of his biggest Ohio endorsers switch his endorsement to Santorum.

Mike DeWine, former senator and current Ohio attorney general, felt Santorum is a better candidate for Ohio.

“To be elected president, you have to do more than tear down your opponents,” DeWine said at the announcement. “You have to give the American people a reason to vote for you, a reason to hope, a reason to believe that under your leadership, America will be better. Rick Santorum has done that. Sadly, Governor Romney has not.”

Ohio’s 66 delegates to be awarded on Super Tuesday appear to be a big draw to Republican candidates, who have not hid from the historic swing state.

Newt Gingrich has, along with his strategy to go after Southern States where he is polling well, made an emphasis on Ohio after being in the state numerous times in February. Romney has already run television ads in the state and Santorum has been in the state a couple of times, including a planned Steubenville visit on Monday. Ron Paul, while he hasn’t visited the state as much as the others, claims a big grass-roots presence.

A valuable indicator to Ohio will be Michigan’s primary on Feb. 28, where Santorum’s move past Romney is seen in statewide polls. Santorum, a native of western Pennsylvania, has been effectively running as a rustbelt, Midwestern values candidate, a strategy which helped him win two statewide elections in the Democratic-friendly state. A win in Michigan on Feb. 28, Romney’s home state growing up, could bolster Santorum’s momentum heading into Super Tuesday on March 6and cast serious doubt on Romney’s electability claim, which has driven his campaign since this process has started.

Gingrich grabbed 13 percent in the poll, and Ron Paul received 10 percent in the Rasmussen poll.