Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney scored a decisive win in Tuesday night's Illinois Republican presidential primary, CNN projects, running ahead of his top remaining rival by a double-digit margin.
"We thank the people of Illinois for this extraordinary victory," Romney told supporters in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg. "Elections are about choices. Today, hundreds of thousands of people in Illinois joined millions of people in this country in this cause."
Mittens ended up with less than 50% of the vote, which is not what Mitt wanted to see in a "two-person race" between Romney and Not Romney. Not Romney still won Illinois. The Santorum folks at this point are running to get enough delegates to keep Mitt from hitting 1,144 and forcing...something. An actual brokered convention, I guess. Somehow, I think the pressure on Gingrich, Santorum, and Paul are going to be very, very strong now. The GOP leadership wants this over with. They want to start running against President Obama.
The much larger problem is that this is still a contested primary, and the turnout was pathetic. In 2008 900k votes were cast on a Super Tuesday showdown that all but sealed John McCain as the nominee . The battle was over by Valentine's Day. This year, the turnout was closer to 700k and Illinois was more important than ever.
GOP's in trouble. Bad trouble. Nobody to blame but themselves.
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