Santorum triple win shakes up US Republican race

Written off only a few weeks ago, Santorum won caucus votes Tuesday in Minnesota and Colorado and a primary in Missouri -- a clean sweep in the latest turnaround in a topsy-turvy Republican race to pick a candidate to take on President Barack Obama in the November elections.

Santorum had been seen surging in the Midwestern states of Minnesota and Missouri thanks to support from evangelical Christians, but few expected him to win in the Rocky Mountain west.

It was a bitter blow for Romney, who had romped home in Colorado and Minnesota during his 2008 bid with large leads in the final counts.

While the triple win catapulted Santorum at least for the moment past former House speaker Newt Gingrich into the role of Romney\'s main rival, the ex-senator from Pennsylvania insisted his wins were not just symbolic.

"I don\'t stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama," he said in a victory speech in Saint Charles, Missouri.

Early Wednesday Santorum told CNN: "We definitely are the campaign right now with the momentum (and) enthusiasm on the ground."

But not the resources, insisted the better-funded team Romney, which issued a statement Tuesday saying Santorum does not have a deep enough war chest or the political machinery necessary to mount a winning national campaign.

Nevertheless, the latest contests could reposition the Republican battle ahead of "Super Tuesday" on March 6, when 10 states vote at once in the state-by-state nominating process.

Romney goes into that day as the man to beat, but Santorum\'s triumphs put fresh pressure on the man who was once governor of liberal Massachusetts among a party base that still doubts his conservative bona fides.

"I don\'t know if Santorum\'s wins... constitute a major upset, but they are surprising and do show just how soft Romney\'s support is," political science professor John Brehm of the University of Chicago told AFP.

Santorum was the big winner in Missouri\'s primary, with 55 percent of the vote, more than double Romney\'s take. In Minnesota, Santorum led with 45 percent and Romney was third, behind small-government crusader congressman Ron Paul.

The shock of the night was Colorado, where Santorum beat Romney by five percent.

"What a night for Santorum and a disaster for Mitt," professor Charles Franklin at Marquette University Law School told AFP.

"This certainly raises the stakes for Super Tuesday."

Although the wins didn\'t change the standings -- Romney remains in the lead, with Gingrich second -- Santorum argued the results showed he can win when candidates and their political action committees (PACs) don\'t unleash a barrage of negative ads, as was the case in Florida and South Carolina.

But Brehm said Romney\'s team could "unload all the venom they can muster on Santorum, who just does not have the money of his own or a patron SuperPAC to join in on his side."

Santorum surprised many when he won the Iowa caucuses on January 3.

But that was more than a month ago and he badly needed to reset a campaign that flagged through New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and last weekend in Nevada, where he finished last.

Romney has three big victories under his belt, but the former governor of liberal Massachusetts continues to face withering accusations of "flip-flopping" on key conservative issues.

In theory, Tuesday\'s states held rich pickings as candidates try to secure enough delegates to pocket the 1,144 needed to secure the nomination which will be decided at the August party convention.

But the results in Colorado and Minnesota act as a guide for later state conventions, while Missouri\'s vote was dubbed a "beauty contest" as the state will only award its delegates after a March 17 caucus.

"Since they were non-binding, that blunts it a bit, but it does provide fodder for the narrative that Romney cannot close the deal with the right, particularly with social conservatives," said David Damore of University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

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