Ho hum, outspent again, probably won't matter. (Steve Nesius/Reuters)
Mitt Romney and his Super PAC have committed
$3.4 million to the Illinois air war, you know, those ads that talk about how horrible Santorum is while making no effort whatsoever to get people to like Romney.
Now, Rick Santorum and his Super PAC sugardaddies are finally engaging—and like everywhere else, it'll be a fraction of what Romney's camp is spending.
The super PAC supporting Rick Santorum Thursday bought $310,000 worth of air time in Illinois - fresh evidence that both his campaign and allies see the state as a key battleground.
Santorum's campaign had already purchased $122,000 of statewide cable time for ads beginning Thursday.
That's
$422,000, or about 12 percent of Romney's spending—par for the course. In fact, Romney can't compete without swamping his opponents with cash, and even then, he often can't win anyway.
Romney's camp outspent Santorum close to 6-1 in Mississippi and Alabama, 4-1 in Super Tuesday states, and a crap-ton to peanuts pretty much every where else. The grand total is now somewhere in the neighborhood of $110 million for Romney versus $25 million for Santorum.
And yet he still can't close the deal. So if history is any indication, Illinois will offer much of the same—drastic Romney overspending, all in the pursuit of either a narrow victory or a narrow loss. The only poll in the race (weirdly enough) gives Romney the early lead—35 percent to Santorum's 31 percent. Those numbers look pretty familiar by now, don't they?
By the way, Gingrich got 12 percent in that poll, but he'll get even less given that he's skipping the state. At least for that night he won't pretend to still be a candidate.