-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening. you're watching a special edition of "a.c. 360." so far, the former senator from pennsylvania is 2-3. santorum wins in both in minnesota and in missouri. we are still waiting for results in colorado. let's take a look at the vote tally as it is right now in colorado. with 46% of the vote and santorum in the lead. 901 votes ahead of mitt romney.

31% to 30%. and ron paul in fourth with 13%. a lot to talk about in the hour ahead. we'll check in with santorum headquarters and the other camps as well. we'll hear from the candidate, from rick santorum himself. we'll talk to our panel about how much this changes the landscape and how significant a win for santorum or a close finish to romney in second place would mean for the former senator. let's take a look right now at some of the highlights from the candidate speeches from earlier tonight. >> conservatism is alive and well in missouri and minnesota! your votes today were not just heard loud and wide across the state of missouri and minnesota, but they were heard loud and louder all across this country. and particularly in a place that i suspect maybe in massachusetts they were heard particularly loud tonight. >> this was a good night for

rick santorum. i want to congratulate senator santorum. wish him the very best. we'll keep on campaigning down the road, but i expect to become the nominee with your help. >> there's maybe another person who's listening to your cheers here tonight also. that might be at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. you better start listening to the voice of the people. >> he said progress would be determined by again, quote, whether the average american family saw its income go up instead of down. during the last four years the median income has fallen by about 10%. again, by his own definition, president obama has failed. we will succeed. >> you know, the unemployment numbers went down last month. and you'd think that was good. until you learn that the number one reason the unemployment

number went down is that 1,200,000 people dropped out of the work force. literal literal literally aren't looking for work. so under obama's model if we all stopped looking for work, we'd have no unemployment. he is the best food stamp president, you decide which future you want. >> one thing that i'm convinced of, those who joined the campaign for liberty and promote this cause really believe in something. i keep thinking it must be a lot more fun believing in something than just campaigning for nothing. >> governor romney's greatest at distribute is i have the best money and the best organization. we, he's not going to have that in the fall. >> president obama said he's learning. we say he's learning too little

and too late. >> governor romney said the other day he wasn't really worried about the very poor because they have a safety net. i am not a safety net republican. i don't believe -- i believe the safety net turns into a spider's web which traps the poor at the bottom and keeps them dependent and teaches them not to go and have a better future. >> those are some of the speeches we heard earlier today. and dana joins us live from santorum headquarters in st. charles, missouri. what did the senator have to say, dana? >> >> reporter: well, he was extremely happy. he gave some of the highlights, but i think the biggest applause line when he said he was not running the alternative to mitt romney. he's running to be the conservative alternative to barack obama. so that is shanley the message he gave when i spoke to him moments ago.

senator, first of all, congratulations. >> thank you. it was a good day. the people had an opportunity to go out there without a lot of the garbage being thrown at them. although i will say when i was in minneapolis today, somebody handed me three negative mailers from the romney campaign. >> what did they say? >> newt gingrich is a bad guy, newt gingrich is a good guy. i think that sums them up pretty cleanly. look, you know, to say that minnesota didn't matter, you don't spend money if it doesn't matter. in fact, they spent more than i did. we made three visits up to the state. three here to missouri. the response was great. and, you know, the visits helped. we had a great visit out in colorado. look at the places we were, month troes out on the western slope. someone said we got 61% of the vote out there which is pretty

impressive for one stop. just wish we had more time to spread around in a few more places. i think the message is resonating. >> now, you have not spoken to newt gingrich or romney, but there's probably a couple of messages on your cell phone. >> yeah, i'm not going to answer my phone when i'm giving speeches. but look, they have been forthright and look, maybe there's other people in this race. i respect both of them as well as congressman paul. and i'm sure that they -- they left me nice voicemails. >> not to take away from the in -- away from the wins, they were big wins particularly in minnesota, but what do you say to the whole idea what's happening now is a split regionally, that you have won in the midwest and that, you know, newt gingrich is a southern candidate and so forth? >> here's what i would say to that. the first five states, everybody knew they'd be the first five

states. they were the first five states last time that's where all the money was spent four years ago. that's where all the money was spent putting their campaigns together. usually this race is decided. now we're in a little bit of a no-man's-land. you've got campaigns that don't -- that haven't spent months and millions in these states. and it's a whole different environment. it's much more real as to what the real temperature of america is as opposed to some of these states that have gotten a whole lot of extra attention from these candidates. i would say i don't think it's regional at all. i think it's the first three states. look, we may win colorado or come very, very close. governor romney won that state with 61% of the vote last time. that's state that people would say, how can rick santorum do well in colorado? well, we did. that's not a region, but that's

out west, the rocky mountain, very different from iowa. >> but that state like this state, they have large evangelical populations. do you feel that you have been able to prove -- i know you're saying you're the conservative alternative to barack obama. do you think you have been able to prove that you're more than just the candidate for the staunch conservatives? >> if you get 55% of the state of missouri you're getting a lot more people than just evangelicals. as you know, faith is very important to me. i try to be a faithful catholic, but i think our appeal is a lot broader and stronger than that. i feel very good that this message is going to carry over. we'll head off to oklahoma and texas. tomorrow we're headed up to michigan and ohio which are two states we have got our eyes on. we're headed to north dakota. we'll be in tennessee. we're going to be traveling all over the country. we're not putting -- in fact,

we'll be in california and washington state. another couple of states, california for money raising, but washington that's a state we think we can do well in. >> so your path forward is -- across the entire country? >> look, if we're going to be the alternative to barack obama, we've got to show we can win in places around this country. and we're not going to leave any stone unturned. >> thank you, senator. congratulations again. >> thanks. >> now, i understand one of the more immediate stones he doesn't want to leave unturned are the ones with money underneath them. he'll head to texas tomorrow, and the campaign tells me it's to meet with some donors who want to give him some money and see him face to face. interestingly on that note, you may have noticed people who are kind of political junkies may have noticed a man by the name of foster freeze who was standing on the stage with santorum and his family. he's somebody who is a very

wealthy donor, he's given lots and lots of money to the super pac that supports rick santorum. i spoke with him after the interview and i said, so, you know, are you getting ready to right more money to the super pac? he said maybe i won't have to. because of the fact that he thinks that perhaps the money is going to roll in from other places. >> dana bash, thank you, appreciate the reporting. we'll go live to romney headquarters in a few minutes. 20 minutes after he spoke to the crowd, he was shaking hands. a young man seemed to try to throw glitter at governor romney. security quickly grabbed him, led him out. governor romney now has secret service protection. that was the moment not only whisked the young man away, but moved governor romney out of the area. you see something being thrown toward governor romney there. jim acosta is going to join us shortly from romney headquarters. he's there now.

jim, what's the -- what's the mood there? >> well, anderson, it was not a very good night for mitt romney, but it was a great night for the secret service protection. they jumped on the young man very quickly almost as soon as he tried to throw glitter on the massachusetts governor. the glitter is behind me on the floor. it was initially cordoned off, they were making sure this wasn't anything that meets the eye. they did do sort of an initial investigation. they made sure that this was essentially what we saw in that video just a few moments ago. this was a man who tried to throw glitter on mitt romney as he tried to exit the room after the victory speech. but to do a political postmortem tonight, i talked to stu stephens from the romney campaign. they said, you know, he indicated to me that this was

not their favorite night in the race to the gop nomination. he did point out that rick santorum doesn't always have the most staying power. you recall he had the big night in iowa, and that did not last. after mitt romney had the tough loss to newt gingrich in south carolina, he won florida. so the romney camp still optimistic. they feel like they'll have the delegates to win the nomination. >> thanks, jim acosta. newt gingrich was not on the ballot, he didn't focus on colorado or minnesota. he's in ohio with an eye on super tuesday and joe johns joins us from columbus. >> anderson, newt gingrich might have been in an alternate universe tonight. he did post a telephone call we're told and didn't get him but tried to reach rick santorum. as you said, newt gingrich is not in colorado. he's not in minnesota. he's here in ohio. he's been here all -- basically all day long. he started out in cincinnati. went to dayton.

ended up here in columbus, ohio. going out to cleveland in the morning. as far as newt gingrich is concerned, ohio is state that's getting ready for early voting even though ohio doesn't officially vote until super tuesday on march 6. he thinks it he's a good idea to spend some time team here and his whole strategy is to work through the southern states and on to texas hoping at the end of the day he's somewhere near parity with mitt romney. so that's the story on newt gingrich. back to you, anderson. >> joe johns, appreciate that. political earthquake you could say, rick santorum winning two contests. it would be an earthquake if colorado goes to santorum. we'll have an update on the numbers when we come back. all energy development comes with some risk,

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fiber to help fill you up and help keep your heart healthy. super people eat super grains. [ male announcer ] engine light on? come to meineke now for a free code scan read and you'll say...my money. my choice. my meineke. welcome back to cnn election center. we are watching a dramatic development unfold. as you know, rick santorum has already won the missouri primary. won the minnesota caucus, but look at what's happening in colorado. rick santorum continues to

maintain a significant lead over mitt romney. 41% to 30%. newt gingrich in third place with 16%. ron paul, 13%. almost half, almost half of the vote in colorado is now in. this could be a political earthquake if in fact rick santorum not only wins in missouri and minnesota, but also wins in colorado. which mitt romney was assuming would go in his corner. anderson cooper is over in the cube with mark preston our political director, and you're all wondering, maybe mark can help us better appreciate when we might be able to project a winner in colorado. >> yeah, i think that's the question we'd like the answer to. >> let's do it now and go home. it's getting late. here's the situation. we haven't seen the big populous counties such as denver county and boulder county. these are counties that mitt romney tends to do very well in. but one county we are really keeping a sharp eye on is el paso county. this is where colorado springs

is. it's dominated by social conservatives. now, if rick santorum does very well there and the turnout seems to be very high, this could be a dogfight going into the night. >> do you have any sense of how soon we might get the numbers? >> i think probably, you know n the next 15 or 20 minutes. we might see the urban numbers start to come in. so far what we have is a lot of the rural counties who don't have as many votes that have done the reporting. but wait until we see denver. wait till we see what happens in boulder county and in el paso county. the tiebreaker, get this, talking to the polling director keating holland could come down to this. it could come down to larimer counties. this is a dogfight. >> it would be a fascinating race starting tomorrow if rick santorum was able to pull out a win in colorado. wolf? >> thanks very much. john king is over with me at the

magic wall. we've got almost half of the vote in, rick santorum is maintaining a significant lead. but we can't project a winner yet. >> we don't know the vote totals. turnout is very low. 47% of the precinct is in. looking at 3,400 votes, but to mark's point. what are we waiting for? this is adams county. come below it, denver county. see how many people turned onut the republican vote. go back four years ago, you had 4,000 votes or so. when you added it up in denver county. we're waiting for jefferson county and into the suburbs and the exurbs of denver tonight. we want to wait and see the maft come in. move up to the county, more rural, but the growth in the denver area has been great. and boulder county, 7% of the state population.

decent republican turnout. again, mitt romney territory. 1,700 votes. so as you watch this play out as you come back to the map here and you pull it out, we see what else is missing. he mentioned colorado springs. grand junction was an area that romney carried before. denver county, again, largely a democratic area. a decent chunk of the population. i believe paul vercammen is standing by. we've been waiting to get more results. help us out. >> here's what i have told. romney won with 13-11. santorum was in second with 958. then paul with 621 and newt gingrich with 359. romney 1311 winning denver county. that's not reflected on the map behind me as you know. that's that squiggly little county. but as you pointed out they're waiting for the urban denver area counties to come in. that's the first. looks like romney got a win

there. >> can i have the santorum win one more time? >> absolutely. 958. 1,311 to 958. >> so you're looking there, not quite 400 votes. so if you add roughly make up the math, i'm going to round it up, give it to 28 -- excuse my scribble, somewhere in the ballpark. governor romney is coming up. that's up. that's why it's so important, if he's making up somewhere in the ballpark of 300 or 400 votes here in this area, making up in denver county, then he would have to do something similar in jefferson county. he would have to do that in boulder county. if he can stretch the leads out in places like he won last time, that would help off set. storm he -- santorum, he's winning in the small counties. you come over to the county where he's winning, he's winning

with 22 votes. even if this fills in purple down here, not a lot -- >> when we say 47% of the precincts have reported some of the precincts are really tiny. some might be bigger and as a result, this doesn't necessarily -- got up to 49%. we don't know if this is 50% of the complete turnout. it could be a lot less. >> because we're missing votes in here. we expect a higher turnout. if you go into the areas, i say higher turnout. i'm not going to say high turnout. i want to do back to arapahoe county, you don't get 200. you add that up, right? >> what was the turnout four years ago? >> that's depressing. >> 70,000. >> an exercise of democracy. it's depressing to see turnout down so much. i think there were weather issues there today. if you look at jefferson county, governor romney needs to make up the votes in a decent chunk. he got 65% of the votes four

years ago. he needs to match that. because he went from 47 to 49. that was because larimer county came in. this is your further north here at the border up at the border, way out in denver area, down below here. 39% to 30%. again, 100% of the counties voting, 80% win. >> what was it four years ago? >> look at that. this turnout is stunningly lower than it was four years ago. beyond what happens in colorado tonight, if you look at the iowa experience and now the colorado and even the minnesota turnout is down there's a lot of conversations within the republican party and both parties about the caucus experiment and whether that needs to be revisited. >> let's update the numbers based on what we heard from paul vercammen. denver county, look at this. 49% of the vote now in, but i think we'll update it right now as i'm awaiting -- here it is

50% of the precincts now reporting. a lot closer 38% for rick santorum. 33%, now 50% of the precincts reporting. mitt romney is now ahead, 37% to rick santorum's 35%. 333 votes ahead, 7,494 to 7,161. this is a real horse race in colorado. 51 of the -- 51% of the precincts are in. mitt romney has take an slight lead over rick santorum right now. newt gingrich remains in third place. distant with only 14%. ron paul narrowly behind. but this is turning out to be quite a horse race in colorado. everyone assumed that mitt romney would win in colorado. that's why he was there tonight. that's why he was speaking from colorado. but it's certainly appears to be right now a whole lot closer than a lot of people thought. but mitt romney for the first time since these official

numbers have been coming in. a slight lead. anderson, we could be here for a while waiting for the results from colorado to come in. where our edith and carolyn when we need them? >> i know. we should get them on the vote count. get lou rawls playing "after dark" again. and another surge for rick santorum. regardless of what happens in colorado. but is tonight a game changer? we'll talk to the panel when we continue. oh! [ baby crying ] ♪ what started as a whisper ♪ every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. ♪ slowly turned to a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ amen, omen

our real battle is unfolding in colorado. take a closer look at what's going on. john king is with me. 50% of the precinct, john, have reported for first time. mitt romney taking a slight lead over rick santorum. 37% to 35%. but only about 300 votes or so separate these two guys right now. newt gingrich and ron paul distantly behind. look at the counties right now. hold on for one moment because paul vercammen is over at gop headquarters in colorado right now. you're getting more numbers, paul? >> yes, wolf and john, i just got arapahoe county and romney posted 2959 and santorum 2257. gingrich at 2216 and then of

course a scattered other votes including one for general petraeus. that's in the large county, considered a bellwether. interesting make up there. it's almost a third republican. a third independent and a third democrat. obviously, the independents couldn't vote tonight. what many people in the precincts said there, they need the independents in november to win colorado. >> yeah. >> hold on here a second. find out jefferson county, that would be significant as well. this is a net gain of 700 for mitt romney right now. in that county. >> so we pull it out to the statewide vote. if you add 700 to governor romney you boost him up a little bit. i would argue that's too close for governor romney though in this county. in this one county here, senator santorum's coming in that close to him, 700 votes behind, these

are the places for governor romney he has to run up bigger margins. that's why i'm interested in jefferson county. he needs to run up bigger wins in this area. let me explain why i say that. come out to the statewide map and then come back to 2012. senator santorum is winning most of the smaller rural areas. if he's winning by 20 here, 10 there, 5 there he's going to make up the digits and colorado springs, el paso county still out. this is a strong hold for christian conservative evangelical voters. the home base of the focus of the family ordinary. long-time leader dr. james dobson a santorum supporter out there. you expect him to do quite well there. if you look at the map, politics in the end is about math. a lot of people live right here. governor romney needs to win margins. you would expect this is santorum county and you see some aberrations.

romney winning here. but santorum is starting to fill in around the edges. if he does small margins up there, it is absolutely critical that governor romney run up big numbers here. well, he won out here four years ago. he has to hold that as well. that 700 vote net gain that paul was able to give governor romney it helps if i'm looking at the math and thinking through the history of the state, but i'm not sure it's enough. >> it will be very, very close. if you're hearing -- if you can get el paso county, jefferson county, get a better sense of what's going on. obviously still too early for us to make any projection whatsoever. anderson? is the >> let's bring in the panel. you have been talking already to folks on the ground. nonpolitical -- non-romney folks. >> they're not identified with a campaign. they know colorado. they told me earlier this evening they thought that mitt romney was going to pull it out.

they said it was going to be a close second for santorum. now they're saying it's going to be very close. this is -- it's playing out as we thought. but, you know, almost doesn't matter now. because you have to say this is a great night for rick santorum. >> that was my next question. does it matter? if it's this close, if -- who comes in first or second? >> you know, this is embarrassing at the very least for mitt romney particularly in the state of colorado which he won so easily in 2008. people expected him to win here. you're down to maybe a thousand -- >> what happened? >> maybe a thousand votes. i think what maybe what we underestimated here is the strength of the evangelical community in colorado. the divisions within the tea party in the state of colorado. and also, the general unease with conservatives about mitt romney. >> it's math. >> very simple. >> very few people are voting.

>> you see the differences between the vote turnout in 2008 and what it is now. >> they did get a foot of snow, denver airport -- i mean, i'm not saying that -- >> more like d.c. the traffic doesn't stop. >>ing interesting point. >> i didn't see this coming. it's very hard to say why it happened. this is totally unexpected that, you know, santorum may be 3-3. so i think we have to scratch our heads. there is though apparently in colorado as we have seen elsewhere this enthusiasm gap we have talked about in republicans, there seems to be a romney enthusiasm gap. it goes up in areas where santorum is winning. it's been reported around colorado where santorum is piling up some votes. the turnout is higher than it was four years ago. that's interesting. >> he's spent nine days in the state. that matters to people. look, mitt romney ignored people

and i think people, yeah, we like your money, you've got all these big-name people. but it's like me introducing gloria to ari. a yeah, i made the introduction. but someone needs to make the sell. hey, this is why i want you to support mitt romney that's clearly a problem for mitt romney. >> the narrative coming out of the weekend, mitt romney is starting to make it up in the areas where he was weak, all the tea party, every single category. now it's back again to those groups that you were struggling with before, you're now struggling with again. >> here's the thing about this race. that's no -- there's no bounce out of any state. there is a just bouncing around. >> there's a bounce out of florida. >> well, you know, okay i'll give you a little bounce. but honestly, this race has been so fluid. and it fluctuates so much. one other thing about mitt romney. he has had establishment support everywhere he goes.

and it very often, particularly if you're looking at a state like colorado, minnesota, tim pawlenty in minnesota, what did that do? >> we have to take a quick break. we'll take a close look at how many delegates each has up to this point. john king will break it down for us. our coverage continues in just moments. stay tuned.

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all right. a dramatic development happening in colorado. everyone thought virtually everyone thought that mitt romney had it all sewn up in colorado. that's where he was tonight, delivering his speech. still, very, very close. 53% of the precinct have reported. mitt romney is ahead of rick santorum, but not by much. newt gingrich a distaptd third and ron paul a distant fourth if you will. and look at how close it is between mitt romney and rick santorum. let's go over to john watching what's going on. only four percentage points, four points separating the two. a lot of counties are still out including some very conservative counties. evangelical counties where rick santorum probably had another advantage. >> without a doubt. about 1,031 votes ahead by this math right here. here's where senator santorum can make up the gap and then some. if he wins in el paso county by

as much as expected he could easily just in this county alone take the lead back. so then the is question is with we're waiting for the results to come in. this should be emphasis on should be a romney strong hold. jefferson county. about 12% of the state population. again, a place he won handily last time. turnout is not this high. he could use a 3,000 vote cushion. but turnout is nowhere near that. look at denver county in at 100%. look at arapahoe county, in at 100%. douglas county at 100%. if you're looking in the denver area where you have the major population center, and adams county, with the exception of adams county in the immediate denver area, governor romney is doing quite well. he needs to win jefferson and win it big. one encouraging sign, this tiny county, piton came in, 0.3% of the population.

they came in as we speak. governor romney won pitcon, a lot of the small, rural areas what we saw it happened right here, senator santorum has been winning. he made up -- he was 1,000 when we began the conversation, now 688 votes because of this county right here coming in for senator santorum. so wolf, what we have now is a county by county. we're going to have to do the arithmetic the old fashioned way. you have about an abacus at home or calculator. >> pitcon, that's aspen county. >> more of the romney vote, the strength is those above $200,000 there. a tiny vote. he wins that county with 83 votes. not exactly a resounding mathematical victory. you have to assume based on the trends that senator santorum is going to win most of these.

maybe not all of them, but most of these. he's winning the small, rural areas. he's winning here. this is a population center, grand junction. what is key to the state for senator santorumer. we hope to have the numbers for you in a few moments. and the math for governor romney if he's to hold the 688 vote lead he has at the moment, he has to start coming right here in jefferson county. >> i want to check in with social media, what they're saying. brooke, what are you seeing tonight? >> john king doing math, quarter after -- half an hour after midnight, but we are talking about twitter. and first, you know, i have to say we have been following tweets for hours and hours here. it sort of flat lined but once missouri happened for santorum it blew up. trending has been the phrases. would and he love the headlines, santorum sweep. we'll stand by for that.

he would like to be the anti-obama as he told dana bash tonight. we're closely honing in on santorum and gingrich. so this is a y axis. this is looking at 100% favorability versus zero. look at the last couple of days here. sunday, monday and tuesday. this is gingrich likability. it dipped a little bit and dipped down to 50% rating here. here's the story. this is santorum. you see him starting a little lower than gingrich at 62%. but he comes chugging along come monday he's eclipsed gingrich and now he's sitting mighty high at 75%. so we've pulled up a couple of different tweets because people are talking about momentum. of course, money as we look into the next couple of contests for rick santorum. i want to point out, larry

sabato, here's what he writes. yes, missouri, it's a beauty contest, minnesota and colorado, nonbinding, but a vote is a vote is a vote. again, this could be the momentum and psychological for rick santorum. guys, let's click it to the next tweet. you can see as i have -- i go along. how wart kurtz. big night for santorum who had neither money or media and a clear setback for romney. i think that's what a lot of you have been pointing out. finally, from mr. fleischer himself, even though no delegates awarded, money will come in for santorum tomorrow. wolf, i know we're talking money and ari had tweeted earlier, looking more presidential in coats and ties. so we saw him with a coat and tie on tonight. maybe that will help him with more money.

>> no sweater vest. howard kurtz now at the daily beast and "newsweek" and the host of "reliable sources" sunday morning. very important that ari fleischer learned how to spell though. that's another story. and paul vercammen, you have more numbers. i think they're pretty dramatic. what's going on? >> hang on, wolf. they're not here yet. they're promising me here at gop headquarters in a matter of moments. this is very free thrflowing he. they'll have a massive batch of numbers. the time table is 10 to 15 minutes. we're on the third floor, and possibly give us the final numbers. so we'll hang on for you right now. >> stand by for a moment. we're not going to let you go too far away. in fact, stand by for one second, paul, because we'll come back to you as soon as you get

the numbers. in fact, let's take this opportunity as we await these numbers and i think this will be a dramatic moment. on this special night, rick santorum doing remarkably well. we'll go to paul vercammen and get the numbers right here after this. ♪ [ indistinct conversations ] ♪ under blue moon i saw you [ young man ] whoo-hoo! ♪ so soon you'll take me ♪ up in your arms too late to beg you ♪ ♪ or cancel it though i know it must be ♪ ♪ the killing time ♪ ♪ unwillingly mine there he is! the party's arrived. ♪ fate ♪ up against your will [ both hiss ] [ screams ] [ screaming, explosions ] oh, he-- [ crickets chirping ]

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something should happen because wolf blitzer said omg during the break. >> i'll repeat it, omg. look at this. 64% of the precincts are in. rick santorum is 75 votes ahead of mitt romney. 12,564 and 12,489. let's walk over to john king. let's get an assessment. said it was iowa. remember what happened in iowa. that was worthy of an omg. right now in colorado we have an omg going on. >> i'm trying to figure out how to top that. there's no lol at mitt romney headquarters. watch this play in, here's one of the reasons that happened. we have been waiting for mason county all night. 11 point victory. i want to go back in time. i'm doing this a lot tonight. not doing it to annoy you at home. mitt romney won this state with 60% of the vote four years ago. he won in part because in a

place like grand junction county, he got 67% of the vote. 67% of the vote four years ago. 36% of the vote tonight. i'm told jefferson county came in west of denver here. let's look at it. this is the problem. this is the problem right here. mitt romney -- >> problem for romney. >> huge problem for romney. winning jefferson county but only by 200 votes right there. just shy of 210 votes. if you look at that, again, go back in time. he won with 65% of the vote a few years ago. come back down and you pull out to the state, 2012 -- >> john, hold on a second. i'm going to update the viewers right now. 70% of the precincts are now in. mitt romney has taken the slight lead ahead of santorum. gone back and forth. 70% of the precincts in. both having 37% of the vote. it's going back and forth, back and forth. this is a lot tighter than mitt romney had hoped for.

i think going in he always suspected that he could lose minnesota, missouri, but colorado was going to be his safe haven for him. not -- he might still win in colorado. but it's a lot closer than he would have liked. >> i talked to several of the top strategist and they were confident about colorado. they were confident they'd get a win and a good win tonight. turnout is way down. e-mails and the twitter universe you hear about people saying it's the weather. you'll have a debate about whether it's weather or enthusiasm. it'ses a dead heat, the narrowest romney lead. but wolf, i want to circle right here and say this is -- i told you earlier we're waiting for jefferson county. romney was leading, but by a tiny margin. we're waiting now for this county to come in. this is el paso county. 12% of the state's population lives here. again, this is a huge conservative christian

conservative, social conservative area of the state. where one would expect senator santorum to do quite well. >> headquarters of -- >> focus on the family. jim dobson's organization. he has a radio and magazine show, but this the a strong christian conservative area. it has a higher turnout. most of the other counties i'll tap one to show you. larimer county, they came back in. this is the last large county still out. there was a bit of a technical issue here. but most of the other counties, it will be like this. somebody winning with 100 or fewer votes. the tiny county, 23% of the population. so as you look at the math, everything right around denver is in now. this is the biggest population center. in terms of a major population center this is the last one outstanding. everything you know about the state and the endorsements,

everything you know about the passion, rick santorum will win el paso county. that was not a big enough margin for governor romney in the denver area, senator santorum's margin can decide the state. >> let's check back with paul vercammen in colorado. you got any more numbers out there? what are you hearing, paul? >> right now, we're hearing exactly the same thing you have been reporting. if you look behind me, el paso county highlighted. still blue here. now, election officials are literally just down the hall and below and they are now compiling these last of the numbers and they say they will have them for us within 10, 15 minutes. i expect them to be coming down the hall any moment now. we'll certainly let you know, wolf and john. >> paul, when they say they'll get them to you within ten minutes, obviously they come in from the counties, are they satisfied with the pace, any

explanation for why some areas of the state have come in much, much quicker than others? >> well, as you recall earlier, we talked to the gop chairman, mr. call. and no, there's no real reason for this being lethargic. we heard in denver county they were late because someone pulled a fire alarm in the school which is one of the precincts. >> paul vercammen in colorado, you have the most important story of the night. we'll be right back. we could have the decisive votes in moments. america's choice 2012 in just moments. r life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine

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