With one full day of campaigning left before Republican voters in Illinois go to the polls in the Land of Lincoln, the relative strength and weaknesses of the four remaining major GOP candidates are clearly defined by what they are doing today.
Mitt Romney is the favorite in Illinois and has spent the last few days rumbling around the state looking to lock down another major midwestern state in his column; Romney begins his Monday in the state capital of Springfield and heads later to Chicago.
Rick Santorum will be barnstorming his way around the state, going to Rockford, Dixon, Moline and East Peoria. Polls show Santorum about 5-7 points behind Romney here, once more being substantially outspent when it comes to radio and television ads.
As for Newt Gingrich, he took the weekend off from the campaign trail and won't exactly be back on track today, as Gingrich holds only a fund raising event in Shreveport, Louisiana later on Monday.
Louisiana votes this coming Saturday; Santorum spent all of Sunday in the Bayou State in hopes of finding victory later this week.
While Gingrich basically took three days off from campaigning, Ron Paul hasn't been seen on the campaign trail since last Thursday, when he had a large rally at the University of Missouri.
Paul held only one event in Illinois last Wednesday, and at this point his campaign has nothing publicly scheduled in coming days.
So, at this point, Paul has not had a campaign event in four days. That has been Paul's basic schedule in recent weeks, which isn't exactly what one might expect during a busy time in this GOP race.
Since last Tuesday's double wins in Alabama and Mississippi, Santorum has campaigned every day with events in Louisiana, Illinois, Missouri and Puerto Rico.
Romney has not held as many events as Santorum, but has been in Missouri, Ilinois and Puerto Rico.
Paul did not campaign at all in Alabama and Mississippi; he did have one day in both Missouri and Illinois last week.
Gingrich campaigned for three days in Louisiana.
Last night, Gingrich was having dinner with his wife in Washington, D.C., over a thousand miles from Shreveport, Louisiana.
That really didn't seem like a place to meet many primary voters in the Bayou State.
The schedules do tell a story.
