Roanoke hearts Mitt

In the Sunday morning straw poll on preference for Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney scored 60 percent of the vote, far ahead of Newt Gingrich’s 22 percent, with Ron Paul and Rick Santorum both getting 9 percent. Will this be predictive of the coming state caucuses?

According to this recent Seattle Times story, our state could have a key role in the national Republican battle:

With the GOP’s seesaw presidential contest showing few signs of ending soon, Washington’s upcoming caucuses may be shaping up as a coveted prize.

At least three of the four remaining Republican contenders have begun to organize here in advance of the March 3 caucuses . . . Washington’s appeal stems from the state’s caucuses falling just days before Super Tuesday, March 6, when 10 states hold nominating contests.

“It has the potential to be significant,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “The Washington result may be the last bit of momentum that can be generated for a candidate before Super Tuesday.”

State Republican Chairman Kirby Wilbur is optimistic.

“Given the nature of the race so far, I think we’re going to be more important than we have been in years, if not decades,” he said.

In many previous presidential contests, the party nominations have been all but wrapped up by the time Washington voters weighed in.

That wasn’t the case for the Democrats four years ago, when Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were still battling it out for the nomination when the state’s caucuses rolled round. On the GOP side, Sen. John McCain was the overwhelming front-runner by the time of the February 2008 caucuses and primary election.

Washington has held both caucuses and a presidential primary in the past, but the state Legislature canceled the primary this year to save money.

Washington will send 43 delegates to the Republican National Convention, the most from any state with caucuses or primaries between Florida’s hotly contested primary this Tuesday and Super Tuesday.

Those delegates won’t be formally bound at the caucuses — that won’t occur until the state GOP convention in June — but the caucus straw-poll results will draw national attention.