Romney's little helper

The Republican primary is dragging on longer than Mitt Romney had hoped — and it’s hurting him. His poll ratings have begun to plummet, and his war chest is feeling the pain too. In January, he spent a whopping $18.8m while raising just $6.5m. His campaign still has $7.7m ‘cash on hand’, but you don’t have to be Rain Man to see that even that won’t last long at this rate. Of course, multi-millionaire Romney could easily self-finance his campaign (as he did in 2008), but that isn’t a story that would make his candidacy look strong. Even so, Romney does still have more than enough to outspend his rivals in the next key states, and he can still count on the ‘Restore Our Future’ Super PAC (with its $16.3m) to support him.

And Romney’s also getting some much-needed assistance from an unexpected quarter: the Ron Paul campaign. Paul has tended not to attack Romney this year, but has been more than happy to train his fire on Newt Gingrich and, now, Rick Santorum. This week, he’s put out an ad (above) attacking Santorum’s voting record and labelling him a ‘fake’ conservative. This, coupled with the news that the two campaigns worked together to scupper a debate in Georgia next week, has led to rumours of a secret deal between the two candidates. And that talk was only exacerbated by the way Paul joined in Romney’s attacks on Santorum in a debate in Michigan on Wednesday.

So might Paul be helping Romney? Usually such a situation would spark speculation that Ron Paul is aiming for a position in a Romney administration, but in this case there’s an extra factor in play: Ron’s son, Senator Rand Paul. He’s seen as a much more likely Cabinet appointee, and some even think Ron Paul’s hoping to secure his son a spot as Mitt Romney’s running mate. Ladbrokes now have Rand as third favourite to be the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee at 7-1.