Gingrich-Santorum ticket a possibility   no comments

The possibility of a Gingrich-Santorum alliance is once again being raised. Photo: CBS.

The possibility of a Gingrich-Santorum alliance is once again being raised.
Photo: CBS.

The possibility of a Gingrich-Santorum ticket is once again being discussed as a tactic to prevent former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney from winning the Republican presidential nomination.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich‘s Wisconsin campaign director Robert Lorge confirmed at the weekend that he had been having a series of discussion with the national team about the possibility of forming an alliance with former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Romney has so far amassed 568 delegates in the 35 contests held so far. In comparison, Mr. Santorum has 273 under his belt, while Mr. Gingrich has managed to collect 135. Texas Congressman Ron Paul lags far behind with a mere 50.

“I imagine there’s going to be a lot of negotiation and compromising between the pro-Newt Gingrich and the pro-Rick Santorum delegates,” Mr. Lorge said. “You may have a Newt Gingrich-Rick Santorum ticket. You may have a Rick Santorum-Newt Gingrich ticket. Nobody knows how that ticket’s going to work out. But I imagine it’ll end up being something like that,” he added.

The concept of an alliance between the two Republican presidential hopefuls is not brand-new . Two weeks ago, Mr. Gingrich floated the idea on the Rick and Bubba show while the Alabama and Mississippi primaries were in full swing.

“There’s a certain advantage I think right now in having both of us tag-team Romney, because neither one of us by ourselves can raise the money to match Romney,” he told the ‘Two Sexiest Fat Men Alive’.

Yet, he acknowledged that, by remaining in the race, the other three presidential hopefuls were managing to contain Mr. Romney’s progress.

“With Rick and me together, we are really slowing (Romney) down and with some help, frankly, from Ron Paul,” he told the show’s hosts. “I think the country is sort of saying, the majority are saying ‘not Romney.’ The biggest block is saying Romney, but it’s not a big enough block to be the majority.”

During the program, Mr. Gingrich also stated that he did not expect Mr. Romney to succeed in collecting the 1,144 delegates required to win the nomination ahead of the Tampa, Fla., GOP convention in August.

Mr. Lorge echoed the former House speaker’s remarks, stating that the real battle had yet to start.

“Newt’s the only candidate that realizes this battlefield is almost done, but the coming battlefield is the convention. Like all true leaders, he’s the first one onto that battlefield. He’s going to be focusing on contacting those delegates,” he said.

Written by Dr. Whom on March 31st, 2012