Beyond Nevada and Maine, where caucuses also began Saturday, five states will hold contests this month, and none of them is tailor-made for Gingrich, who had to lighten his campaign schedule in the Silver State to make fundraising calls for the road ahead. Romney in 2008 won Colorado and Minnesota, which vote Tuesday. Missouri has a nonbinding primary that day as well. On Feb. 28 come primaries in Arizona and Michigan, Romney's home state, where his father was governor in the 1960s.
In addition, there won't be another candidates' debate until Feb. 22, denying Gingrich the chance for free airtime in a forum that has been his strength in the campaign.
Gingrich's strategy is to try to score a victory on Super Tuesday, March 6, when three southern states vote - his native Georgia, plus Oklahoma and Tennessee - and to continue picking up delegates all through March under the proportional representation rules that the GOP adopted to try to slow down the nomination contest and give more states a chance for meaningful votes.
"There'll be some breakthrough moments, but this is all about delegates, the blocking and tackling of presidential campaigns," said Charlie Gerow, a Harrisburg-based GOP consultant who is organizing slates of delegates for Gingrich ahead of the April 24 Pennsylvania primary.
At any rate, because of the rule changes, it will be mathematically impossible for any candidate to clinch the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination before April. That gives Gingrich and the other remaining challengers, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, opportunities to sting Romney.
