After Ron Paul's win in Maine over the weekend, and successful efforts by his backers to win delegate slots in other recent state GOP conventions, Mitt Romney will look for ways to snuff out any protest-vote-momentum in primaries today in West Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana.
107 delegates are at stake in these three races today, as Romney is the favorite in each state - neither Romney nor Paul has held events in any of these states in recent days.
Romney was in Ohio on Monday; he will hold an event today in Michigan. Meanwhile, Ron Paul will be on Capitol Hill for a House hearing on one of his favorite topics - the Federal Reserve.
The latest Associated Press delegate count has Romney with 856 of the 1144 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination.
Rick Santorum has 257, Newt Gingrich 130 and Ron Paul has 94.
The three states voting on Tuesday all have different ways to determine the allegiances of their delegates:
* North Carolina - 52 delegates are handed out proportionally according to the results.
* Indiana - 27 delegates are awarded winner-take-all by Congressional district. 16 delegates will be handed out in a separate contest at the state GOP convention in June - those conventions are where the Paul forces have succeeded in winning delegates in recent weeks.
* West Virginia - 28 delegates are at stake in a primary where you vote for delegates directly, three from each of the three congressional districts and then 19 delegates statewide. Ron Paul has the exact number of delegates in eah contest, while Romney has more than enough. Conceivably, the voters could dilute their votes by spreading support among too many Romney delegates, allowing Paul to win in some cases.
Two weeks ago, Romney delivered the knockout punch to Newt Gingrich and cemented his status as the "likely" nominee of the Republican Party.
While no one expects him to knock Ron Paul out of the race on Tuesday night, we'll see if his backers are ready to deliver a strong victory in three different states.
