In Santorum’s Sweep, Sign of G.O.P. Unease With Romney

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
NYT

Rick Santorum’s sweep of Mitt Romney in Tuesday’s three Republican presidential contests sets the stage for a new and bitter round of intraparty acrimony as Mr. Romney once again faces a surging conservative challenge to his claim on the party’s nomination.

Mr. Santorum’s defeat of Mr. Romney could scramble the dynamics of the Republican race even as many in the party’s establishment were urging its most committed activists to finally fall in line behind Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor. Voters in three disparate states forcefully refused to do that on Tuesday.

Instead, the most conservative elements of the Republican Party’s base expressed their unease with Mr. Romney by sending a resounding message that they preferred someone else. And they collectively revived the candidacy of Mr. Santorum, who has been languishing in the background since a narrow victory in Iowa’s caucuses at the beginning of the year.

Mr. Santorum’s success on Tuesday night awarded him no delegates from the contests, which were were essentially nonbinding straw polls and drew small turnouts in all three states. And Mr. Santorum’s campaign has few of the organizational advantages of Mr. Romney’s well-financed effort.

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