With Super Tuesday failing to cough up a clear winner, the race for the Republican presidential nomination is about to take a dramatic turn, GOP strategist Bradley Blakeman tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview.
Closed primaries on a winner-take-all basis in swing states will dominate in April and May , the Fox News contributor added.
“The news from Super Tuesday is the race goes on,” said Blakeman. “It would have been nice to lock this up tonight, but in a proportional race you would have had to have a blow out and that was highly unlikely to occur.
But he said the whole complexion of the race will change in April and May.
“The order of importance is Wisconsin April 3 — winner take all, closed primary; Pennsylvania April 24 — winner take all closed primary; and North Carolina May 8 — semi-closed primary.”
All three of those are battleground states that will be vital in deciding November’s presidential election, Blakeman pointed out. So far Mitt Romney with wins in Florida, New Hampshire, and Nevada is doing far better in such states than Rick Santorum whose only swing state win has been Colorado.
“I think the race will be wrapped up in May,” said Blakeman, who worked in George W. Bush’s White House. “If it goes to the convention I believe President Obama gets a free pass back to the White House.
“Santorum could have a pathway to victory but that remains to be seen in the winner take all states. But certainly as far as electability is concerned, I’m very leery of a Santorum selection because he hasn’t won battleground states other than Colorado.
“He has to win big in Pennsylvania,” added Blakeman as, unlike Romney, who was born in Michigan, was governor of Massachusetts, and has a house in Utah, the state in which he helped rescue the 2002 Winter Olympics, it is the only state that he has close ties to.
As for the other two remaining candidates, Blakeman said both Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul get to fight on in next week’s contests in Alabama and Mississippi.
“It remains to be seen if Gingrich can do well in these next southern states. Don’t forget Tennessee is a southern state and Santorum won it tonight,” he said.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.