Santorum Leading in Three Delegate-Rich States

With voters in 10 states heading to the polls on Super Tuesday, the latest surveys show Rick Santorum leading in three of the four states with the most delegates in play where Santorum is on the ballot — including crucial swing state Ohio.

The latest Suffolk University poll, released on Monday, has Santorum with 37 percent of the vote in Ohio, which has 66 Republican delegates. Mitt Romney has 33 percent, Newt Gingrich has 16 percent, and Ron Paul is fourth with 8 percent.

In Tennessee, which has 58 delegates, Santorum leads with 35 percent in the latest American Research Group (ARG) poll, with Romney at 31 percent, Gingrich at 20 percent, and Paul at 9 percent.

Santorum also leads in Oklahoma (43 delegates) with 37 percent, ahead of Romney with 26 percent, Gingrich with 22 percent, and Paul with 9 percent, according to an ARG poll released on Sunday.

Gingrich is expected to win in Georgia (76 delegates), his home state. The latest Mason-Dixon survey gives him 38 percent of the vote, Romney 24 percent, Santorum 22 percent, and Paul 3 percent.

Neither Santorum nor Gingrich is on the ballot in Virginia (49 delegates), and Romney leads Paul there, 69 percent to 26 percent in a poll released on Sunday by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, leads in the Bay State (41 delegates) with 64 percent to Santorum’s 21 percent, with Paul at 9 percent and Gingrich at 6 percent, according to the latest YouGov poll. Romney also leads in neighboring Vermont (17 delegates) with 34 percent. Santorum has 27 percent, Paul 14 percent, and Gingrich 10 percent in the newest poll from Castleton State College.

No recent poll numbers are available for Idaho (32 delegates), North Dakota (28), or Alaska (27).

Each of the states holding its primary today awards its delegates proportionately rather than on a winner-takes-all basis, according to the New York Post, which observes: “But the number of delegates on the table promises to reshape the race for the 1,144 delegates needed for the nomination.”