we're back again with rick pearson who's following all of this for the "chicago tribune." so who do the polling numbers indicate, because they've been all over the place the last 48 hours? >> frankly, go back to mississippi and alabama where the polling numbers were kind of all over the place, too. you know, we're starting to see a little bit of separation between romney and santorum. but, again, traditionally santorum seems to underpoll. sometimes romney overpolls. a lot depends on the turnout. and the big question has always been up in the chicago metropolitan area where suburban republicans tend to be more moderate, just as we've seen in the past, support romney, but there is a high level of apathy out here which is somewhat surprising given illinois's rare role for republicans to have a say. >> let me ask you about the party establishment. bob edgar, your former governor of the state -- >> jim edgar. >> jim edgar. i apologize. has not endorsed anyone yet in the race. says he's going to stand on the sidelines. politico has a story there's lack of enthusiasm for mitt rom

. >> the latest wgn tv chicago tribune polls political reporter rick pearson is here with more on thepolls and a couple of surprises as the results came out. our latest tribune wgn poll shows that rather than just coming here to raise money which is what its plan was he also needs to do some campaigning right now our tribune poll shows 30 percent of registered republican voters. newt gingrich at 12%, ron pollack 7% for we should point out though it's a narrow and significant leap. in this race, moderate independents it to ronni but the number of conservative voters in illinois still shows the problem that ronni is having one other factor to point out is that this raised really remains very fluid 46% of the voters say that they can still change their minds you can see in recent states were santorum had a significant lead we're going to see some of that here in illinois one other factor to remember to is that ronni did well in suburban areas santorum did well in rural areas and is doing well in downstate illinois. it will be one of the most interesting races to watch on election night i

. >> rick pearson of the chicago tribune. his work is available online at chicagotribune.com. >>> well, as we said at the top of the hour, we'll hear much more about the budget from republicans, house republicans. congressman 35u8 ryan is the chair of the house budget committee. he is expected to release his plan later this week. democrats, meanwhile, are angling to reclaim the house of representatives, and they have launched a robocall offensive tying 41 house lawmakers to the proposal which is expected to include changes to entitlement programs for senior citizens. we'll have specifics tomorrow from congressman paul ryan and more on the "washington today" program tomorrow afternoon. the dccc with its medicare march campaign began today with robocall connect voters to their representative and encouraging the constituents to demand that the plan be defeated. real clear politics is writing about this. the house is expected to vote by the way on the marked up plan next week. the robocalls assert that supporters of the ryan plan

political analyst rick pearson says it will not be the first time ... combined with super pac money there is no end to this spending >>rick santorum is riding high off the primary victory last night he will be in niles and elgin friday and saturday challenging the mitt romney front runner status the two are shown to be running a dead heat here in illinois ... newt gingrich is coming on strong with attacks on mitt romney ... >>if you are the front runner and you keep coming in third place you are not much of a front runner >>you will hear more of that talk in the northwest suburbs when newt gingrich holds events there ron paul will be and champaign urbana senator dick durbin and senator mark kirk representatives met this morning on capitol hill with federal emergency management agency administrator craig fugate dick durbin called for the meeting after fema announced sunday that federal assistance to five southern illinois counties devastated by severe storms and tornadoes would be denied in order to discuss the state's appeal to that decision seven people

the chicago tribune's rick pearson joining us for what we can expect tomorrow. hello. a cnn poll has mr. romney up 14 percent in illinois. i have heard about that and another poll an automated paul with double digit lead spirit one thing to keep in mind is that the polling done in previous states has under counted the support of rick santorum and over counted the support of mitt romney. we note turn it is going to be like tomorrow. predictions of a blood are premature. who will hurt from the low turnout? it depends where it comes from. here in the chicago area among republicans that is not good for mitt romney. downstate that is not good for rick santorum. santorum needs a big turnout downstate and a low turnout in the chicago area among suburban republicans to have a shot at illinois. can you explain the idea of the beauty contest the popular vote could be won but delegates lost. you have winner take all states and proportional states. where the number of popular votes and they get a percentage of delegates. illinois is unique. we have what is called the presidential

joining me from chicago is rick pearson, the chicago tribune chief political reporter. at the table, keith boykin and ezra klein. i want to start with you, rick. tell us, if looking at anything that's a game changer in illinois, the beginning of the race, never thought this would be something we're covering. is there something that could change the momentum in this race in the next couple of days? >> melissa, i think the real story in illinois is the question of turnout. as we've seen in other states, such as ohio and michigan where romney has done well in the urban, suburban dynamic versus santorum doing well in the rural dynamic, that's what you're seeing in illinois. the question is, in the chicago metropolitan area where the bulk of the republican votes are cast, there's a lot of voter apathy out there. so what we're seeing right now is really a ground game going on in the other 96 counties outside the chicago metropolitan area, what we call down state. that's where the voters tend to be more conservative. it's really been forcing romney to get out, to down state ar

thank you very much, hampton pearson. rickom chicago. >> we're looking at a fourth up number in sequence, we ended up with 52.4, following an unrevised 54.1. that's the lowest level since november, which is only a handful of months, but let me tell you, this is what important, we know the feel-good indexes like confidence have been moving up, whether there is impacted by energy, we'll have to dig through it, but boy did it zonk a boatload of positive off the stock market. interest rates have moved two or three basis points lower, and the long maturity, very key number. back to you. >> let's continue with the breaks news phil lebeau has the later. >> simon, good morning, general motors reporting a slight increase in february sales up 1.1%. that's better than the street was expecting. the street was expecting a decline of 5 parse. also, if we can, ford has moving up after the company reported sales for february, they also released their second quarter production. their production p. the second car last year, that's what we're lo