Romney Campaign Press Release - Rep. Mike Turner: Rick Santorum's "Half-Hearted Attempt to Represent Ohio"

"I think what this shows is just a half-hearted attempt to represent Ohio. He clearly approached getting on the ballot in Ohio haphazardly and many say that this shows that he's not up to the challenge of the big campaign in November. I would go further and say that running for president is sort of like a competency exam for being president and voters don't want to pick someone who runs for president or to be their president who's not even capable of getting on the ballot everywhere." — Rep. Mike Turner

Romney Campaign National Counsel Ben Ginsberg, Ohio Congressman Mike Turner, and Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann

"Santorum's Delegate Debacle" Press Conference Call

March 3, 2012

Click Here to Listen to The Entire Call

Highlights From The "Santorum's Delegate Debacle" Press Conference Call:

BEN GINSBERG: "Thanks Andrea and hi everyone. Thanks very much for joining us. As someone who has labored, for better or for worse, in party rules and delegate fights for a number of years, we're really in an extraordinary and almost unprecedented position. Getting on the ballot so you can win the delegates that Andrea mentioned is really one of those underappreciated parts of running for president. It's not the great speeches, it's not the massive rallies, it's not the searing rhetoric that gets most of the coverage, but what it really is, is a true test, especially for Republican primary voters to look at, whether a candidate's ready for primetime. And in the case of Republican candidates this year, equipped to take on the billion dollar Obama machine. What's evident from what's going to happen on Super Tuesday and beyond, is that Rick Santorum flunks that test. It's graphically illustrated in Ohio, where he's failed to get on the congressional district ballot at all in 3 CDs. And he's short a total of 18 of the 48 congressional district delegates that are up for stake. That's a failure that goes not only to delegates he won't win but to organizational deficiencies that should give Republican voters great pause as we get ready to face President Obama. Now, it's not only Ohio where he has failed this test. He has failed to get on the ballot in Virginia on Tuesday at all. He's failed to file a complete slate in Tennessee. He has failed to get on the ballot at all in the District of Columbia. And he's failed in four of the upcoming Illinois congressional districts. So what that means is that that basic organizational test that you are going to have to have to battle President Obama is a test that Rick Santorum and his campaign have flunked. The bottom line of what all that means and we're happy to go into the details of the particular CDs in Ohio or the rules of the other states, but what it really means is that on Wednesday, the day after Super Tuesday, the Santorum campaign's going to be looking at a sufficient deficit to Governor Romney in bound delegates and any realistic hope of closing the gap paved the way with his organizational incompetence, that failure to organize. And as you go down the road, the combination of the RNC rules, the proportional allocations, plus Santorum's regional weakness, puts him at a great deficit of really being able to catch Governor Romney at all. So with that let me turn it over to our Ohio leaders who can tell you a bit about the stakes in Ohio and then we're happy to answer some specific questions after that."

REP. MIKE TURNER: "I think what this shows is just a half-hearted attempt to represent Ohio. He clearly approached getting on the ballot in Ohio haphazardly and many say that this shows that he's not up to the challenge of the big campaign in November. I would go further and say that running for president is sort of like a competency exam for being president and voters don't want to pick someone who runs for president or to be their president who's not even capable of getting on the ballot everywhere. This basic competency test I think goes right to the issue of whether or not he's put forth the full effort in Ohio to both have a full slate of delegates but to represent our country as he's failed the basic test here in running his campaign."

HAMILTON COUNTY COMMISSIONER GREG HARTMANN: "Yes, thank you. It was mindboggling to me that I heard Senator Santorum did not make the ballot in a number of areas in the state of Ohio. It's been pretty well documented as Ohio goes, so goes the nation. And for anybody to run for president and not have the organizational ability to do the simplest task of qualifying for the ballot shows really signs of a pattern that's been established by this campaign and really is really scary that a national candidate is engaged in this kind of campaign. We all know that in the fall, whoever the Republican nominee is will be going against one of the best, most well-oiled political machines we've ever seen in politics and I think that this kind of ball drop in this stage of the campaign really is a sign that he's really not ready for primetime."