Romney, Santorum y Paul harán campaña en Washington

The Oregonian:

Three of the four major Republican presidential candidates will be in Washington state Thursday and Friday seeking support in advance of the Washington caucuses on Saturday.

So far, Texas Rep. Ron Paul is the only one who has scheduled an appearance in Southwest Washington. He will hold a rally at 4 p.m. Friday at the Clark County Event Center in Ridgefield.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, coming off an easy win in Arizona and a narrow victory in Michigan, has long been scheduled to hold a $1,000-per-person fundraiser in Bellevue on Thursday evening.

Seattlepi.com said a public event on Friday morning is "hinted at" by the Romney campaign. It would be surprising if Romney visited the state without making any public appearance before the caucuses.

(...) Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who led among prospective caucus attendees in a poll taken last week, will be in Spokane Thursday afternoon and in Pasco that evening.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who campaigned in several Washington cities last week, has not announced any further visits to the state. He is banking on reviving his campaign with a strong showing Tuesday in Georgia, which he represented in Congress for 20 years.

Each of the visits seem to symbolize the varying strategies of the candidates, all of whom are primarily looking forward to the 10 contests that will be held on "Super Tuesday" just three days after the Washington caucuses.

Romney, whose fundraising event was moved to a larger venue because of brisk sales, continues to tap establishment Republicans who are the base of his support.

But his schedule suggests he's not making an all-out effort to win the low-turnout caucuses, which could be dominated by social conservatives and Tea Party activists he has had a harder time winning over.

Paul, meanwhile, is hitting two areas -- Clark County and Spokane -- where he has a strong volunteer base that he hopes will translate into a big showing on Saturday. The caucuses are actually just the first of several steps leading to the selection of delegates to the Republican National Convention, and the Paul campaign has stressed working those later steps hard in hopes of maximizing his share of the 40 Washington delegates that will be chosen through the caucus process.

(Another three delegate slots will go to the state chairman and the two other Washington members of the Republican National Committee.)

Santorum, who campaigned in Olympia and Tacoma two weeks ago, is focusing on eastern Washington this time. In Spokane, he'll speak at the New Life Assembly of God Church as he seeks to build on his strong support among evangelical voters. Later in the day, he will be in Pasco.