Santorum defends importance of nonbinding caucuses

Rick Santorum on Wednesday sought to pre-empt efforts by Mitt Romney to downplay the importance of Santorum’s stunning sweep of GOP contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.

Because the delegates in Tuesday night's Colorado and Minnesota caucuses are nonbinding, critics say the victories don’t carry as much as weight as Romney’s victory in Florida, for which he has already been awarded all of the state’s delegates.

“Iowa is a nonbinding caucus too, and that turned out to be a pretty important race,” Santorum said Wednesday on CNN. “These caucuses are important. I talked to a bunch of people last night who were elected delegates for me at these caucuses and they’re going to go through, I have no doubt. In both of those states we have strong organizations — I suspect we will hold that percentage and maybe even do a little better.”

The Missouri caucuses in particular have widely been referred to as a “beauty contest,” as the state won’t officially select its delegates until next month.

But Santorum argued that delegate count isn’t the only important factor at this early stage in the primary season.

“We are the campaign right now with the momentum and the enthusiasm, and we feel very good that the delegate count will at least match, and maybe even exceed, what we received in Colorado and Minnesota,” he said.

The former Pennsylvania senator dismissed the notion that while he might have the momentum, he doesn’t have the money to compete with the Romney campaign.

The Romney campaign has around $19 million in cash on hand, compared to Santorum’s $1 million.

“If money made the difference, we wouldn’t have won four primaries so far,” Santorum said. “The fact is ideas and contrasts, someone who has a strong record and good vision for the country.”

Santorum said that he raised a quarter of a million dollars online on Tuesday night and that the last two weeks had been the best fundraising weeks for his campaign so far.

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