On Eve of Illinois Primary Romney Widens Lead

Several polls are showing former Governor Romney's lead in tomorrow's critical Illinois primary widening over Rick Santorum. The former US Senator from Pennsylvania is Romney's only remaining serious challenger. Santorum's campaign has largely conceded that they have little hope of gaining the necessary number of delegates to nail down the nomination before the August national convention in Tampa Florida. Their current objective is to deny Romney enough delegates to prevent him from being nominated on the first ballot and hope for a brokered convention. At present Romney has slightly more than twice the number of delegates as all of his challengers combined and slightly less than half the number needed to secure the nomination (1144). The mathematical wall however is daunting and Romney will likely be able to count on the support of so called super delegates who are usually loyal party establishment types. If Romney wins Illinois decisively the odds of Santorum being able to force the nomination fight on to the convention floor will be greatly reduced.