The AP reports Rick Santorum “is the winner of the Louisiana Republican presidential primary, defeating GOP front-runner Mitt Romney in yet another conservative Southern state.”

“The Louisiana victory was unlikely to change the overall dynamics of the race. Santorum still dramatically lags Romney — the former Massachusetts governor — in the hunt for delegate to the GOP’s summertime nominating convention. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia was far behind in the Louisiana vote count.”

Politico: “While all of the candidates made stops here this week — including Newt
Gingrich, who stayed in Louisiana for a week — none stuck around to see
the votes get counted.”

“And don’t ever forget, Barack Obama is a great uniter of Republicans.”

— Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), in an interview on Bloomberg TV.

[Read more…]

Louisiana Republicans head to the polls today to make their choice for Republican presidential nominee. Nearly every public opinion survey shows Rick Santorum holding a solid lead over Mitt Romney.

Polls close at 9 pm ET.

A new Rasmussen survey in Wisconsin finds Mitt Romney with a double-digit lead over Rick Santorum in the Republican presidential primary, 46% to 33%, followed by Ron Paul at 8% and Newt Gingrich at 7%.

The Wisconsin primary is on April 3.

Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) faces an ethics investigation in the midst of her bid for U.S. Senate this year, as she hopes to knock off incumbent Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV), National Journal reports.

It is not clear what the subject of the probe is but Politico hints it’s “over allegations that she used her official position to aid her husband’s business.”

Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) was the only Republican congressman at an Equal Rights Amendment rally yesterday and he advised a crowd of mostly women to give their money to Democrats, the Huffington Post reports.

Said Hanna: “I think these are very precarious times for women, it seems. So many of your rights are under assault. I’ll tell you this: Contribute your money to people who speak out on your behalf, because the other side — my side — has a lot of it. And you need to send your own message. You need to remind people that you vote, you matter, and that they can’t succeed without your help.”

Michael Hirsch: “It would be a cruel irony indeed for Mitt Romney, whose father’s political career was ended with one indelible word — ‘brainwashed’ — if the son suffered the same fate at the hands of one of his most loyal aides, Eric Fehrnstrom. But if the Obama campaign were smart, right now it would be using some of its millions of dollars to hire the best former Saturday Night Live writers out there, all in an effort to keep the country laughing at the image of Mitt Romney as ‘the Etch A Sketch candidate.'”

Capitol Hill sources tell Howey Politics Indiana that Club for Growth is planning to spend $1.8 million on behalf of Richard Mourdock (R) in his GOP primary challenge to Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN).

A new Pew Research poll looks at “quick, off-the-cuff public impressions” of the GOP presidential candidates.

For Mitt Romney, the overall number of people citing money or wealth has soared since late last year, with mentions of his religion way down. His top five in the new poll are “no,” “rich,” “good,” “Mormon” and “moderate.”

The top five for Rick Santorum: “conservative,” “no,” “good,” “OK,” and “crazy.”

For Newt Gingrich: “old,” “no,” “idiot,” “untrustworthy” and “dislike.”