Results: AK, GA, ID, MA, ND, OH, OK, TN, VT, VA
9:03 PM PT (Steve Singiser): For those west coast folks just sitting down to your computers, or for the benefit of our other readers that have been out and about, let's kick off this 13th (!) thread in tonight's Super Tuesday liveblog with the latest numbers from around the nation.
First, on the presidential front: as of right now, eight states have been called tonight. Mitt Romney romped to victory in two of them: Massachusetts (72 percent of the vote) and Idaho (75 percent of the vote). He also scored a surprisingly weak 60-40 win in a heads-up contest with Ron Paul in Virginia, and a somewhat underwhelming win (40 percent) in Vermont. Rick Santorum, as was largely expected, took wins in Tennessee and Oklahoma, with vote totals in the mid-30s. Newt Gingrich clinched his home state of Georgia easily (48 percent).
All that remains is Alaska, and an official call in pivotal Ohio. After Rick Santorum held the edge for most of the night, the Cincinnati metro area came in with a clear win for Mitt Romney, giving him a narrow lead he seems unlikely to relinquish.
9:04 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Quick correction, before heading downballot: Santorum had three wins tonight. I inadvertently left off his stronger-than-expected win in the North Dakota caucuses.
9:09 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Now, for the action in Ohio's first-in-the-nation federal (congressional) primaries, where there was quite a bit of news. The big headline tonight: Mean Jean Schmidt's reign of inanity in the U.S. Congress is over. Schmidt, the caustic Republican who has made many a headline in her seven years in Congress, went down to defeat tonight (49-43) at the hands of Army veteran and physician Brad Wenstrup in OH-02 (east of Cincinnati). Schmidt was one of two incumbents to go down to defeat tonight: in the northern tier of the state, Democrat Dennis Kucinich has lost his bid to stay in the House, defeated decisively (59-37 at last check) at the hands of fellow Rep. Marcy Kaptur.
In the other big primary of the night, the Democratic showdown in OH-03 (Columbus) produced what many might deem a mild upset, as former state representative Joyce Beatty scored the narrow win (38-35) over former Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy. Beatty now takes on Republican Christopher Long in this overwhelmingly Democratic district.
9:09 PM PT (David Jarman): Let's take another quick look at the congressional district situation in Ohio (which is where the majority of the state's delegates get allocated). Right now, Santorum is leading in six of the 16 districts. He's up in the 3rd (Columbus... probably a beneficiary of Operation Hilarity there), the 4th and 5th (rural NW Ohio), the 7th (Appalachian hills), the 8th (exurbs of Cincinnati), and the 15th (Columbus exurbs). (The 8th and the 12th both have differences in the hundreds between Romney and Santorum, so they're both too close to call.) It's worth noting, though, that Santorum screwed up his filing for delegates (something that people who have actual campaigns usually don't screw up), so even if he wins the 3rd, 4th, and 8th, he won't get the full 3 delegates per CD.
9:16 PM PT (David Nir): Cuyahoga County finally finished reporting, and unofficially, that gives Marcy Kaptur a 56-40 win over Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic primary. Joe the Plumber, in an extremely embarrassing turn of events, barely beat his Some Dude opposition in the GOP primary, eeking out a 51-49 "victory." I put that in quotes because Kaptur will obliterate him come November. It'll be like shooting womp rats in her T-16.
9:25 PM PT (David Nir): Asshole till the end:
Kucinich says Kaptur ran campagin "that was utterly lacking in integrity" and he fails to congratulate her.— @ChadPergram via Twitter for BlackBerry®
9:27 PM PT (David Nir):
Dennis Kucinich on his next move: "Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin, we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico! We're going to California and Texas and New York! And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan! And then we're going to Washington, D.C.! YEAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!"
9:29 PM PT (Steve Singiser): While AP is not yet calling the race, it looks like for all intents and purposes, Ohio is a done deal. With 99 percent of precincts now reporting, Mitt Romney has pulled out to a lead of 10,661 votes over Rick Santorum. It would seem next to impossible for Santorum to make up that kind of a gap in just 104 precincts. So, that would give Romney his fifth win on the night, joining Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia, and Idaho. It also means that just one state on Super Tuesday (Alaska) remains without a verdict.
9:31 PM PT (Steve Singiser): And, at almost the precise instant I hit "post", we see that the AP has now called Ohio for Mitt Romney. Having outspent Rick Santorum by a 4-to-1 ratio, he nails down a decisive win of 1.0 percent.
9:44 PM PT (David Nir): Check out these stats from North Decoder:
11,349 people turned out for the Republican caucus today (according to NDGOP.org)19,000 Dems turned out in 2008 (according to Wikipedia)
Obama got more votes than the total number of Republicans that turned out today.
11,625 voted for Obama in the 2008 North Dakota Dem-NPL caucus.