Romney Camp Says Santorum’s Ohio ‘Delegate Debacle’ Shows Major Problems

Mitt Romney may be running into trouble putting away Rick Santorum, but at least he’s running a fully functional campaign. That’s the argument his surrogates in Ohio made on Saturday at least, pointing to Santorum’s basic difficulties getting his delegates on the ballot as proof he’d wilt against President Obama’s elite re-election team.

According to Romney’s national counsel, Ben Ginsberg, Santorum’s ability to field a full delegate slate in competitive states ia “a true test, especially for Republican primary voters to look at, whether a candidate is ready for primetime.”

“What’s evident from what’s going to happen on Super Tuesday and beyond is that Rick Santourm flunks that test,” Ginsberg said in a conference call with reporters.

While several polls have shown Santorum leading Romney in Ohio, he failed to submit the necessary paperwork in three congressional districts needed to compete for their delegates, putting him at a serious disadvantage to Romney from the start. He also, like Newt Gingrich, failed to qualify for the ballot in Virginia entirely. All told, the Romney campaign estimates 16% of all Super Tuesday delegates are already out of play for Santorum. There may be some legal recourse for Santorum if he wants to try to claim those missing Ohio delegates later, but it will be complex and difficult.

“In the Fall, we know whoever the Republican nominee is will be going against one of the best, well-oiled political machines,” Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann, a Romney supporter in Ohio, told reporters. “This kind of ball drop at this stage of the campaign shows he’s not ready for primetime.”

Update: A spokesman for Santorum, Hogan Gidley, responded to TPM that the Romney campaign’s attack on their professionalism reflected an elitist effort to undermine their more grassroots campaign:

“The Romney campaign is just throwing another temper tantrum because they’re a little confused and frustrated as to why they can’t buy this election. I’m sure they thought that with all their Establishment friends and all the Establishment money and with the handpicked Establishment candidate, this campaign would really be a coronation for Mitt Romney. But they’ve just never understood that this election is not about who has the most money - or who has the most infrastructure. It’s about electing a President who inspires and believes in the American people instead of the government control. And on the biggest issues in this election, Mitt Romney sided with Barack Obama, and we just learned today, he actually encouraged Barack Obama to use Romney’s Massachusetts model for the government take over of healthcare. When a grassroots conservative Tea Party candidate like Rick Santorum threatens the Establishment with true conservatism and actual reform minded policies the Establishment resorts to namecalling and tearing down others.”