Romney Wins Wyoming Plus Two Territorial Caucuses
Mitt Romney picked up a trio of victories yesterday, starting with step two of the oddly complicated Wyoming delegate selection process:
Mitt Romney walked away with 7 of 12 delegates at stake in Wyoming’s county conventions Saturday, with another 14 at-large delegates still to be chosen at the GOP state convention in April.
Wyoming’s byzantine delegate selection process began in February with precinct caucuses and a non-binding presidential straw poll. Romney won the straw poll with 39 percent of the vote, followed by Rick Santorum with 32 percent and Ron Paul with 21 percent. Newt Gingrich finished fourth with 8 percent.
That vote didn’t actually allocate delegates — the awarding of delegates didn’t begin until March 6, when four days of county conventions began.
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Despite its small population, Wyoming will have a relatively sizable footprint at the Republican National Convention: the state will send more delegates to Tampa than Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina — thanks to party rules that award bonus at-large delegates to states with strongly Republican voting records. With 29 delegates at stake, heavily Republican Wyoming will send as many delegates to Tampa as Arizona.
Romney also picked up wins in the caucuses in the Northern Marianas Islands, winning nine delegates, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, winning 6 delegates. Not huge delegate pickups, but a delegate is a delegate and adds to Romney’s lead.
