Mitt Romney has spent well over $100 million so far this campaign ... and in terms of actual votes won, this is what he has to show for it—the votes of fewer than 4 in 10 Republican primary voters:
As you can see, Mitt Romney still has a double digit lead over Rick Santorum in the cumulative Republican primary vote, but his edge is down from 26.4 percent on Feb. 4 to 12 percent today. So even though Mitt Romney has spent close to 10 times as much as Rick Santorum, he's not pulling away from his chief rival—at least not when it comes to the preferences of Republican primary voters.
Fortunately for Romney, the popular vote doesn't really matter—it's delegates that count. And not only has he won more delegates than Rick Santorum, he's been able to get more delegates per vote. Here are the numbers:
• Mitt Romney: 3.5 million votes, 495 delegates (7,149 votes/delegates)
• Rick Santorum: 2.4 million votes, 252 delegates (9,621 votes/delegates)
• Newt Gingrich: 2.1 million votes, 131 delegates (16,066 votes/delegates)
• Ron Paul: 1 million votes, 48 delegates (20,033 votes/delegates)
So the guy who spends the most money per vote needs the fewest votes per delegate. Who could have possibly imagined that the Republicans' proportional representation system would work out that way?