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Romney looks to extend his lead with Illinois win

Romney and Santorume crisscrossed Illinois Monday as they competed for the 54 delegates at stake. They were looking to score a victory in a state that was not only home to Obama but is also one of the last major battlegrounds before a three-week lull in April in the state-by-state primary and caucus contests.

Romney was attacking Obama’s economic policies even as the president’s standing in the polls has improved in recent weeks along with signs that the US economy was on course for a sustained recovery. But Obama, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary, remains vulnerable in the November election because of the financial turmoil that hit Americans as a result of the Great Recession and consumed most of his energies.

The most dramatic downturn in the US economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s began as a result of the near financial meltdown in the final months of the George W. Bush administration.

Romney on Tuesday denounced Obama’s economic policies, choosing to make his remarks at the very university where the president once taught constitutional law.

‘Freedom is on the ballot this year,’ Romney told students and supporters at the University of Chicago, contending that the nation’s recovery from recession was being limited by an ‘assault on our economic freedom’ by Obama. ‘I am offering a real choice and a very different beginning,’ he said.

Romney was trying to show he was more than ready to rise above the grinding Republican primary battle and move toward a general election matchup against Obama. The front-runner, he has secured more delegates to the party’s national nominative convention than his opponents combined, and his nomination seems more assured each week as Santorum’s shoestring campaign struggles under the weight of continued disorganization.

But a victory in Illinois’ Tuesday primary is by no means assured.

Romney has spent big on advertising and will have devoted more than three straight days to the state — an eternity by some standards in this constantly shifting campaign — by the time votes are counted Tuesday night.

Santorum was forced on the defensive for first declaring that the economy was not a top issue in the campaign and then stating that ‘the campaign doesn’t hinge on unemployment rates.’

By day’s end, Santorum had conceded that the economy and unemployment were important but said they were symptoms of what he described as broader ills: government intrusion and eroding freedom.

Santorum hit hard at Romney, whose nomination, barring a political disaster, seems more and more assured as the contest results mount. Santorum cloaked himself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan and argued that health care, not the economy, is the predominant issue of the campaign.

After embarrassing Santorum with a one-sided victory in Puerto Rico Sunday, the Romney campaign sees in Illinois a potential breaking point for stubborn rivals who have defiantly vowed to stay in the race until the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, in August. Should Santorum and Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives stay politically alive until then and follow through on their threat, it could turn the convention into an intra-party fight for the first time since 1976.

Illinois is expected to be far closer than Puerto Rico’s blowout, although recent polls suggest Romney may be pulling away. Even if he should lose the popular vote, Romney is poised to win the delegate battle. Santorum cannot win at least 10 of the state’s 54 delegates available Tuesday because his campaign didn’t file the necessary paperwork

And even with a win in Illinois, Santorum has almost no hope of overtaking Romney in the delegate tally. The nominee needs 1,144 delegates to become the Republican standard-bearer against Obama. Romney has 521 delegates, Santorum 253, Gingrich 136 and Texas Rep. Ron Paul 50, according to The Associated Press count.

After Tuesday, the contest moves to Louisiana, in the Deep South, a part of the country where Romney has had trouble breaking through. Louisiana has a total of 46 delegates to the Republican National Convention, but only 20 delegates are at stake in Saturday’s primary.

Romney and a growing number of Republicans across the country are eager to move beyond the increasingly nasty primary campaigns that have consumed far more energy, resources and political capital than most expected. But the former Massachusetts governor has so far struggled to win over his party’s most passionate voters — tea party activists and evangelicals who don’t trust him as a true conservative.

But Romney’s inability to shake off a seemingly weak rival like Santorum highlights the struggles of his candidacy, an inability to generate excitement among the Republican voters. It also means Romney has to spend time and money fighting primary battles instead of turning his full attention to defeating Obama.

Santorum has all but conceded he cannot earn enough delegates to win, but claimed he was in the contest for the long haul because Romney is a weak front-runner.

With Republicans locked in their extended primary campaign, the Obama campaign reported Monday it raised $45 million for his re-election bid in February, bringing his total to about $300 million for this election cycle, his campaign said Monday.

Romney and Santorum, by comparison, raised $11.5 million and $9 million respectively in February. Romney and his allies are spending heavily in Illinois.