Romney steps up Illinois primary campaign, looking to halt Santorum’s momentum

Mitt Romney's campaign insists the race for the Republican nomination is all about securing delegates. But in a move that suggests they also understand the benefits of outright winning a state, the former Massachusetts governor is planning to step up his campaigning in delegate-rich Illinois ahead of the state's primary on Tuesday.

On Friday morning, Romney is set to hold a meet-and-greet with voters in Rosemont, Ill., before traveling to Puerto Rico, where he'll campaign ahead of its nominating caucuses on Sunday.

The candidate is tentatively set to return to Illinois over the weekend, where he'll campaign through Tuesday's primary. That's a shift from earlier plans. Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford, who is Romney's state chairman, told reporters on a conference call earlier this week that Romney wouldn't appear in the state until Monday.

Romney's stepped-up presence in the state comes just days after a WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune poll found Romney and Santorum statistically tied in the state—35 percent to 31 percent. While Romney leads in the Chicago area, Santorum's strength is downstate, where voters tend to be more conservative.

Romney aides have repeatedly insisted they are in a good position in Illinois thanks in part to a strong state organization and a slate of well-known delegates. (Unlike other states, Illinois lists its delegates on the ballot, identifying them as surrogates for particular candidates.) The Santorum campaign, Romney aides told reporters in a briefing last week, had failed to qualify for the ballot in four of 18 congressional districts, giving the ex-governor an automatic advantage for delegates.

But the Romney campaign and its supporters appear to be taking no chances. As the Chicago Tribune was first to report, the Romney campaign and Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting the former governor's bid, purchased a combined $1.4 million in ads in the Chicago TV market this week, bringing overall spending to nearly $2.3 million in the state.

Still, the Romney campaign continues to emphasize the math. In a memo circulated to reporters on Wednesday, Rich Beeson, Romney's political director, argued that, in spite of Romney's third-place finishes in Mississippi and Alabama, the race remains largely unaltered.

"Nothing has changed or advanced his chances of getting the Republican nomination," Beeson wrote of Santorum. "Tuesday's results actually increased Gov. Romney's delegate lead, while his opponents only moved closer to their date of mathematical elimination."

Of the remaining delegates, Beeson wrote, Santorum needs to win 69 percent while Gingrich must win 78 percent. By comparison, Romney needs just 45 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination.

While the Romney campaign may be right about the mathematical argument on the delegate race, it's the battle against the perception that Romney is losing the popular vote that is most challenging for his campaign, even among supporters. In New York for fundraising events on Wednesday, Romney spent part of his time reassuring donors about the delegate math, several attendees told the New York Times.

The Romney campaign is also emphasizing delegates in Missouri, where Republicans are set to hold their caucuses on Saturday. (While Santorum won the state's primary in February, the results were nonbinding because Republicans voted to determine the state's 52 delegates via caucuses.)

The campaign is echoing a similar message about Puerto Rico, which will award 23 delegates this Sunday. Rick Santorum made a last-minute bid for support there, appearing alongside Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno this week. But Fortuno endorsed Romney in January and is expected to campaign alongside him in rallies in Old San Juan on Friday and Saturday.

More popular Yahoo! News stories:

• Romney, Santorum look to Illinois, where polls are close

• From Clooney to Clinton, Cameron State Dinner is star-studded affair

• Key swing states see jobless rates fall faster than nation's

Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or add us on Tumblr. Handy with a camera? Join our Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.