Republicans in Colorado, Missouri, Minnesota to vote for candidates

Feb 7, 2012, 16:46 GMT

Washington - The candidates lining up to challenge President Barack Obama in November general elections face contests in three states Tuesday in which members of their centre-right Republican Party will express their preference for the party's candidate.

Republicans in the western state of Colorado and the north-central state of Minnesota will hold caucus meetings Tuesday evening, while the central state of Missouri is holding a non-binding primary.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is seen as the clear frontrunner for the party's nomination after decisive wins in Florida and Nevada last week, but rivals Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum hope to prove the race is not over.

The contests are drawing considerably less attention than earlier primaries and caucuses that were key in weeding out the field of Republican candidates. The Missouri vote has been largely written off as a 'beauty contest' with no actual delegates to the Republican convention being awarded and a separate caucus due to be held later for that purpose.

Candidates still hope to secure bragging rights by notching up another win ahead of 'Super Tuesday' March 6, when voters in 11 states cast their votes.

Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, has been on the attack against Romney, saying he is not conservative enough to represent the party, and at a press conference following a loss in Nevada's caucuses on Saturday vowed to continue fighting Romney until the candidate is officially chosen at the party convention in August.

Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, hopes his socially and economically conservative views will appeal to the party's base and that he can secure a much-needed boost after poor showings since his surprise win in the Iowa caucuses, which kicked off the election season last month.

Meanwhile, Texas Congressman Paul is looking for loyal supporters of his anti-big-government message and isolationist foreign policy views to turn out in large numbers for the caucuses, where his grassroots organization effort is likely to give him a boost.

Romney is favoured in recent opinion surveys in Colorado, but Santorum was ahead in Minnesota.

Still, the caucuses are expected to have relatively low turnout and it is difficult for opinion polls to gauge the outcome given the difficulty of predicting who will actually decide to attend the local meetings where party members hear from campaigns before making their choice.

The delegates awarded to the national convention in the Colorado and Minnesota contests are also not bound to a specific candidate, meaning they could later change their minds regardless of the outcome of the caucuses.