Gingrich bets future on Georgia

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio â€" Newt Gingrich is betting that his margin of victory in Georgia â€" the state he represented in Congress for 20 years â€" will be “much, much bigger” than Mitt Romney's 3-percent win over Rick Santorum in Michigan, the state where the former Massachusetts Governor grew up.  

With a new poll showing Gingrich leading his Republican competitors by double digits in the Peach State, the odds are looking good that he will be able to pull it off. But the talking point may only work through Tuesday, when one of the 10 states to go to the polls will include Massachusetts, where Romney has lived ever since attending Harvard Law and Business schools in the 1970s and where he ran the investment firm Bain Capitol and served four years as Governor. There, Romney is expected to win handily. 

The better analogy to Romney-in-Michigan may be to see how Gingrich fares in Pennsylvania, where he spent many of his formatives years. The former House Speaker only moved to Georgia in high school and kept a residence there through his time in Congress. 

Speaking to reporters here Saturday night, Gingrich said that, while he felt confident about picking up a significant win in his former home state, he was not willing to predict how many delegates he would get.

“I have no idea,” he said. “But I do feel that we're back, if you look at the Gallup numbers etc., we're back on the upswing. I think the margin between Santorum and me has closed very dramatically in the last 10 days.”

The former speaker was referring to national tracking numbers that have shown him narrowing the gap somewhat with Santorum in the past couple days. 

Gingrich has staked his candidacy on a strong showing in Georgia, which he believes will propel him into contention in Alabama and Mississippi, where voters will go to the polls on March 13th, exactly one week after Super Tuesday. Though traditional wisdom would suggest a strong showing by Gingrich and Rick Santorum in the two southern states, the Romney campaign does not appear ready to cede them. Restore our Future, the pro-Romney Super Pac, has already spent nearly $1 million in Alabama and more than $500,000 in Mississippi advertising on Romney's behalf, according to The Washington Post.

The strategy appears to be built around preventing either Gingrich or Santorum from gaining a significant lead in either state. In Alabama, if a candidate receives more than 50 percent of the statewide vote, they will collect all of the state's at-large delegates, according to the Post. Mississippi's delegates will be awarded proportionally, meaning even if Romney comes in third, he'll still add to his delegate count. 

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