Why Today's Contests are Important

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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February 07, 2012

Why Today's Contests are Important

First Read: "While they haven't received the same kind of attention as the other early nominating contests, today's races in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri are worth keeping in mind for three reasons. First, they have more projected delegates at stake -- a combined 76 (40 in Minnesota, 36 in Colorado, and zero in Missouri, whose delegates will be determined a later date) -- than all the combined delegates for Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Second, they all occur in presidential battleground states. And third, they give Mitt Romney's challengers, particularly Rick Santorum, the opportunity to upset Romney."

The Fix: "It all sets to stage for one of the biggest spin wars of the 2012 campaign, in which the results matter about as much as how they will be interpreted."

Colorado: Caucuses starting at 9:00 pm ET with initial results to be posted at about 10:30 pm ET.

Minnesota: Caucuses begin at 8:00 pm ET with first results posted on the secretary of state's website at about 9:00 pm ET.

Missouri: Today's primary is entirely non-binding with delegates actually chosen at caucuses on March 17. As ABC News reports, the primary today "is a vestige of state law that Missouri's GOP-controlled legislature failed to change."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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February 07, 2012