Tampa, Fla. – If you do the math you know pretty
quickly we are in for a long race.

The delegate count
is as follows:

• Mitt Romney 87
• Newt Gingrich 26
• Rick Santorum 14
• Ron Paul 4
• Jon Huntsman 2
• Rick Perry 2

Add all those up and you get a total of 135 delegates out of a
possible 1,144 awarded after four contests. That’s around 12
percent.  Florida, with its winner-take-all system, is an
outlier when it comes to most primary contests before April,
because
the vast majority of the races before then award their
delegates in some proportional manner. Some of the races that are
coming up are more complicated as their elections and caucuses are
only the first step in selecting delegates for the convention in
August. The races do not revert to winner-take-all until much later
in the race, the biggest prize among those later states is
California with 172 delegates at stake.

The states that award their delegates in proportional manner are
good for every candidate not named Mitt Romney. The states with a
complex delegate selection process, particularly the ones where the
delegates can be what is known as unbound, are good for Ron Paul.
The
legions of Paul supporters across the country have been
organizing in these states since 2008, often independent of the
national Paul campaign. Plus, Paul’s supporters have been down this
road before and they are no longer rookies when it comes to the
delegate selection process.

Even though the road ahead is complicated for all the
candidates, this doesn’t mean Romney’s win in Florida should be
tossed out. His win here was
a very impressive display of organizational prowess. His
victory here should instill confidence in the national Republicans
that support him about their chances here in Florida and
nationally. Florida is a vast and complicated state requiring an
immense undertaking that few campaigns can successfully handle.
Only Romney, and to a lesser extent Paul, are equipped to handle
what is now a national race because they have had national
organizations in place since 2007. Tomorrow,
for example, the candidates will be spread across three time zones
and three states. Candidates can no longer focus with laser-like
precision on some county in Iowa or a precinct in New Hampshire.
 

This race is far from over.