For Romney, however, this was about more than just numbers. After squeaker victories over Santorum in Michigan and Ohio, he needed to show that he could kindle enough voter enthusiasm for a big win outside his Northeastern power base. 
 
 On Tuesday, he got it. For the first time since long-ago Florida, the former Massachusetts governor demonstrated that he could win as big as he spends. 
 
 “Today, hundreds of thousands of people in Illinois have joined millions of people around the country to join our cause,” a confident Romney told supporters in Schaumburg, Ill., on Tuesday night. He said nothing about his Republican rivals but attacked President Obama as an impediment to job creation and economic recovery. 
 
 “Enough,” he said. “We’ve had enough.” 
 
 Romney won many of the populous suburban counties in the Chicago area, while Santorum took rural areas in the south and west. Romney still remains far from the winning threshold of 1,144 delegates, which means the GOP race will probably continue for weeks. 
 
 For Santorum, Illinois was a dismal end to an unhappy week. 
 
 Just seven days earlier, the former senator from Pennsylvania had won surprising victories in Mississippi and Alabama. But after that, he stumbled. 
 
 He left Illinois — a state where he had a chance to beat Romney — and spent parts of two valuable days campaigning in Puerto Rico, where he had none. 
 
 When Tuesday was over, Santorum appeared to have lost in both places. He was already ineligible for 10 of Illinois’ delegates, because he had not filed the correct paperwork. 
 
 “We won the areas that conservatives and Republicans populate, and we’re very happy about that,” Santorum told supporters Tuesday night in Gettysburg, Pa. 
 
 He said Romney is the wrong man for a crucial time in which the basics of American freedom and free enterprise are at risk: “We don’t need a manager. We need somebody who’s going to pull up government by the roots and throw it out, and do something to liberate the private sector.” 
 
 Up next: Louisiana 
 
 Santorum’s prospects look better in Louisiana, which will hold its primary on Saturday. But he still appears to have little hope of passing Romney in the race for GOP delegates. On Tuesday, Santorum’s campaign offered its rosiest estimate of the state of that contest — and still had him down by 124 delegates. Outsiders said that was too optimistic. 
 
 Illinois was the 27th state to vote this year as an unsettled GOP contest rumbles through places unaccustomed to primary fights. Romney has won 16 of them. Santorum has won nine. 
 
 The results in Illinois seemed to further deflate the hopes of former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), who has won just twice. Going into Tuesday’s vote, Gingrich was already a distant third in the delegate count. In Illinois, he appeared likely to come in fourth, behind Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.). 

 Mitt Romney crushed Rick Santorum in the Illinois primary Tuesday night, padding his delegate lead and once again forcing his Republican opponents to find another moment to mount a guerrilla challenge to his campaign. 
 
 With 55 percent of precincts reporting, Romney had 48 percent of the vote to Santorum’s 34 percent, Ron Paul’s 9 percent and Newt Gingrich’s 8 percent. That puts Illinois on track to be Romney’s biggest win in a large state since the Florida primary in January. 
 
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 While Santorum campaigned in Illinois and spent money there, an adviser to his campaign acknowledged even before the polls closed that the state was likely lost to Romney. 
 
 If Romney’s victory margin holds, it may prompt national Republicans to try more aggressively to conclude an already drawn-out primary season. And speaking to supporters in Schaumburg, Ill., Romney sought to cast the win as part of a national political tide in his direction. 
 
 “Hundreds of thousands of people have joined millions of people around the country to join our cause,” he said. “We know our future is brighter than these troubled times. We believe in America and we deserve a president who believes in us.” 
 
 Early exit polls pointed to a Romney-friendly electorate: 37 percent of voters said the top quality they wanted in a nominee was electability, according to CBS. Only 20 percent said their priority was finding a “true conservative.” 
 
 In a reflection of Romney’s perceived advantage, both Santorum and Gingrich spent primary day outside Illinois. Santorum plans to speak tonight from Gettysburg, Pa., while Gingrich has been campaigning in Louisiana ahead of Saturday’s primary there. 
 
 Only Romney was still in the Land of Lincoln, making a visit to Google’s Chicago office and holding an online event with Google+ users. 
 
 Asked if he expected to win the primary, Romney told a pool reporter: “Sure hope so.” 
 
 The race in Illinois played out in a now-familiar pattern: Romney’s conservative opponents charged into the state last week — in Santorum’s case, with some momentum from winning the March 13 primaries in Mississippi and Alabama. 
 
 But Romney’s financial advantage took its toll on his foes. Romney’s campaign and the super PAC Restore Our Future spent a combined $3.7 million on paid advertising in Illinois. Santorum’s campaign and super PAC spent just $532,000. In the populous, expensive Chicago media market, pro-Romney spending outstripped pro-Santorum spending by some $2 million. 
 
 “Fundraising is part of a campaign, so is organization,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul. 
 
 She added that complaints about Romney flooding the zone are “like a basketball team complaining that they lost to another team because their players are too tall.” 
 
 “That’s just ridiculous. This is all part of the game,” she said. 
 
 Santorum also lost airspeed in Illinois when he took a multi-day trip to campaign in Puerto Rico, where he lost to Romney in Sunday’s primary by a gigantic gap. 
 
 In the last 24 hours, the Illinois fight took a sharply confrontational turn after Santorum said at a campaign stop that he didn’t “care what the unemployment rate’s going to be” — a comment intended to convey that his whole campaign doesn’t rest on economic statistics. 
 
 “I want the unemployment rate to go down, but I’m saying my candidacy doesn’t hinge on whether the unemployment rate goes up and down,” he later clarified. 

 (Credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne) 
 
 Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney cruised to victory in the Illinois Republican presidential primary on Tuesday night, defeating his closest rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, by double digits. 
 
 
 
 With nearly all precincts reporting, Romney had 47 percent of the votes cast to Santorum's 35 percent. Ron Paul was in third with 9 percent, and Newt Gingrich in fourth with 8 percent. Turnout was light in the state. 
 
 
 
 Live Illinois GOP Primary Results 
 
 In victory remarks in Schaumburg, Illinois, Tuesday night, Romney kept his focus squarely on President Obama -- not his Republican primary opponents. 
 
 
 
 "Three years of Barack Obama have brought us fewer jobs and shrinking paychecks, but many of us believed we were in danger of losing something even more than the value of our homes and our 401(k)s," he said. "After years of too many apologies and not enough jobs, historic drops in income and historic highs in gas prices, a president who doesn't hesitate to use all the means necessary to force through Obamacare on the American public, but leads from behind in the world. It's time to say these words, this word: enough. We've had enough." 
 
 CBS News exit polls found that Romney, whose base of support was in Chicago and its suburbs, performed well among college graduates, Catholics and voters who see the economy as the most important issue facing the country. He also had a small edge over Santorum among those identifying as conservative. Santorum led Romney among white evangelicals and those identifying as very conservative. 
 
 Exit polls found that 42 percent of Illinois Republican voters said Romney is not conservative enough, while a roughly equal percentage said his positions were about right. Forty-six percent said Santorum's positions were about right, while 34 percent said he was too conservative and 13 percent said he was not conservative enough. 
 
 
 
 Illinois Exit Poll 
 
 Illinois primary results by county 
 
 Romney was backed in Illinois by a massive spending advantage over the other candidates for the GOP nomination, as he has been in other states. According to a Campaign Media Analysis Group analysis, Romney and the super PAC backing him outspent Santorum and the super PAC backing him 18-1 on television ads in Illinois. Romney and his backers spent more than an estimated $3 million on television ads to Santorum's estimated $167,090. 
 
 Also boosting Romney was the perception that he has the best chance to defeat President Obama in November. Exit polls showed that 60 percent said Romney was the most electable candidate, compared to 23 percent for Santorum and nine percent for Gingrich. 
 
 In the exit polls, Romney led his rivals on the question of which candidate best understands the problems of average Americans, with 36 percent support to Santorum's 29 percent and Gingrich's 16 percent. In the Ohio primary, the wealthy former CEO was at only 22 percent on this question. 
 
 
 
 How Romney won the Illinois primary 
 
 Romney is now expected to take to take the lion's share of the 54 delegates up for grabs in Tuesday's primary, which are allocated proportionately. The former Massachusetts governor is focused on getting the 1,144 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination before the convention. His rivals are largely trying to keep Romney from that threshold, with the hope of ultimately securing the nomination at a contested convention. 
 
 
 
 Santorum was not eligible for ten delegates in Illinois because his campaign failed to identify supporters who could serve as delegates in four congressional districts before the election. Neither Gingrich nor Paul seriously contested the state. 
 
 
 
 CBS News now estimates that Romney has 534 delegates, more than his three rivals combined. Santorum has 218 delegates in CBS News estimates, while Gingrich had 120 delegates and Paul had 42 delegates. 
 
 Estimated Republican Delegate Scorecard 
 
 Santorum said before Election Day that he was holding out hope for a surprise victory driven by the more rural, conservative voters in the southern and western part of the state, saying it would "really send shockwaves" through the Republican establishment. He held four rallies and submitted to 19 interviews in Illinois on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to spur turnout among his largely-downstate supporters before heading to his home state of Pennsylvania, where voters go to the polls on April 24. 
 
 "We won the areas that conservatives and Republicans populate, and we're very happy about that," Santorum said Tuesday in Pennsylvania, after acknowledging his loss in Illinois . "We're happy about the delegates we're going to get too." 
 
 Santorum's campaign argued earlier Tuesday that the delegate estimates by CBS News and other news outlets overstated Romney's advantage, since they are doing well in certain county, district, and state conventions that will send delegates to the Republican convention. It also plans to challenge the decision by Florida and Arizona, a pair of states won by Romney, to award delegates in a "winner-take-all" fashion. A successful challenge would reduce Romney's delegate advantage. 
 
 
 
 In addition to Pennsylvania, Santorum expects to do well in the Louisiana primary on Saturday and go on to win in Arkansas and Kentucky on May 22. He has also set his sights on Texas, which offers 155 delegates and which holds a primary on May 29. 
 
 In the short term, however, the calendar offers Romney far better opportunities to garner delegates. There are primaries in April in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, most of which Romney is expected to win. In addition to Pennsylvania, Santorum's best chance for victories in April come in Maryland and Wisconsin. 
 
 2012 Republican Primary Calendar 
 
 The victory in Illinois is the third win in the Midwest for Romney, who attacked Santorum in the run-up to Tuesday's contest as having "the same economic lightweight background the president has." Santorum, who has been hammering Romney over his past support for an individual health care mandate and his past as a "Wall Street financier," shot back that "If Mitt Romney's an economic heavyweight, we're in trouble." 
 
 The Santorum campaign has argued that if Gingrich left the race it would open the door to Santorum winning the nomination on the strength of conservative support. In exit polls Tuesday, Illinois Republican voters were asked how they would vote if only Romney and Santorum were in the race. Forty-seven percent said they would support Romney, 41 percent chose Santorum, and 11 percent said they would not have voted. 
 
 In a statement Tuesday night, Gingrich took aim at Romney for spending so much to win and vowed to stay in the race, saying "we need a nominee who offers powerful solutions that hold the president accountable for his failures." 
 
 
 
 With the nomination seemingly within reach, Romney is expected to aim his rhetoric squarely at the president in preparation for the general election. His rivals, meanwhile, will faced increased pressure to leave the race so that the party can rally around a nominee and leave behind what has been a bruising primary fight. 
 
 "Tonight was a primary, but November is the general election," Romney said Tuesday evening. "And we're going to face a defining decision as a people. Our choice will not be about party or even personality. This election will be about principle. Our economic freedom will be on the ballot. 
 
 Santorum looks ahead to Pennsylvania and Louisiana 
 
 Romney on Obama: "We've had enough" 

 Mitt Romney took a major stride toward the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night, routing Rick Santorum in the Illinois primary for his third-straight big-state win and padding his already-formidable lead in the race for convention delegates. 
 
 Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, stands with son Daniel and daughter Elizabeth as he speaks at his primary election night rally in Gettysburg, Pa., Tuesday, March... (Associated Press) 
 
 Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, right, kisses his wife Ann during a election night rally in Schaumburg, Ill., Tuesday, March 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (Associated Press) 
 
 Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, right, and his wife Ann wave to a crowd in Schaumburg, Ill., after Romney won the Illinois Republican presidential primary, Tuesday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, speaks at his primary election night rally in Gettysburg, Pa., Tuesday, March 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Associated Press) 
 
 Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, right, and his wife Ann wave to a crowd during a election night rally in Schaumburg, Ill., Tuesday, March 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven... (Associated Press) 
 
 "What a night," Romney exulted to cheering supporters in suburban Chicago. Looking beyond his GOP rivals, he said he had a simple message for President Barack Obama, the man Republicans hope to defeat next fall: "Enough. We've had enough." 
 
 Returns from 61 percent of Illinois' precincts showed Romney gaining 48 percent of the vote compared to 34 percent for Santorum, 9 percent for Ron Paul and 8 percent for a fading Newt Gingrich. 
 
 That was a far more substantial showing for Romney than the grudging victories he eked out in the previous few weeks in Michigan and Ohio, primaries that did as much to raise questions about his ability to attract Republican support as to quell those questions. 
 
 Santorum, who hopes to rebound in next Saturday's Louisiana primary, sounded like anything but a defeated contender as he spoke to supporters in Gettysburg, Pa. He said he had outpolled Romney in downstate Illinois and the areas "that conservatives and Republicans populate. We're very happy about that and we're happy about the delegates we're going to get, too." 
 
 "Saddle up, like (Ronald) Reagan did in the cowboy movies," he urged his backers. 
 
 Romney triumphed in Illinois after benefitting from a crushing, 7-1 advantage in the television advertising wars, and as his chief rival struggled to overcome self-imposed political wounds in the marathon race to pick an opponent to Obama. 
 
 Most recently, Santorum backpedaled after saying on Monday that the economy wasn't the main issue of the campaign. "Occasionally you say some things where you wish you had a do-over," he said later. 
 
 Over the weekend, he was humbled in the Puerto Rico primary after saying that to qualify for statehood the island commonwealth should adopt English as an official language. 
 
 Initial results showed Romney's victory was worth at least 19 delegates in Illinois. 
 
 That gave him 541 in the overall count maintained by The Associated Press, out of 1,144 needed to win the nomination. Santorum has 253 delegates, Gingrich 135 and Paul 50. 
 
 Exit polls showed Romney preferred by primary goers who said the economy was the top issue in the campaign, and overwhelmingly favored by those who said an ability to defeat Obama was the quality they most wanted in a nominee. 
 
 While pre-primary polls taken several days ago in Illinois suggested a close race, Romney and Restore Our future, a super Pac that backs him, unleashed a barrage of campaign ads to erode Santorum's standing. One ad accused the former Pennsylvania senator of changing his principles while serving in Congress, while two others criticized him for voting to raise the debt limit, raise his own pay as a lawmaker and side with former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to support legislation allowing felons the right to vote. 
 
 In all, Romney and Restore Our Future outspent Santorum and a super PAC that backs him by $3.5 million to $500,000, an advantage of 7-1. 
 
 In the long and grinding campaign, Santorum looked to rebound in next Saturday's primary in Louisiana, particularly given Romney's demonstrated difficulties winning in contests across the Deep South. 
 
 A 10-day break follows before Washington, D.C., Maryland and Wisconsin hold primaries on April 3. 
 
 Santorum is not on the ballot in the nation's capital. 
 
 Private polling shows Romney with an advantage in Maryland, and Restore Our Future launched a television ad campaign in the state during the day at a cost of more than $450,000. 
 
 Wisconsin shapes up as the next big test between Romney and Santorum, an industrial state next door to Illinois, but one where Republican politics have been roiled recently by a controversy involving a recall battle against the governor and some GOP state senators who supported legislation that was bitterly opposed by labor unions. 
 
 Already, Restore Our future has put down more than $2 million in television advertising across Wisconsin. Santorum has spent about $50,000 to answer. 
 
 Neither Newt Gingrich nor Ron Paul campaigned extensively in Illinois. 
 
 Gingrich has faded into near-irrelevance in the race, but he was defiant in a statement issued after Romney sealed his victory. 
 
 "To defeat Barack Obama, Republicans can't nominate a candidate who relies on outspending his opponents 7-1. Instead, we need a nominee who offers powerful solutions that hold the president accountable for his failures," it said. 
 
 Gingrich said his campaign will spend the time leading to the party convention "relentlessly taking the fight to President Obama." 
 
 Illinois fell into Romney's column far more easily than Michigan or Ohio had. 
 
 The night's vote count was plagued by ballot difficulties. Rupert Borgsmiller, executive director, of the Illinois State Board of Elections, said in late afternoon that 25 counties and the city of Aurora were affected by the ballot problem. He didn't know how many ballots were affected but said "clearly you can say more than hundreds." 
 
 Romney and Santorum campaigned energetically across the state, and not always in respectful tones. 
 
 "Senator Santorum has the same economic lightweight background the president has," Romney said at one point. "We're not going to replace an economic lightweight with another economic lightweight." 
 
 Santorum had a tart reply. "If Mitt Romney's an economic heavyweight, we're in trouble." 
 
 Anticipating a primary defeat, Santorum's campaign argued that the race for delegates is closer than it appears. 
 
 Santorum contends the Republican National Committee at the convention will force Florida and Arizona to allocate their delegates on a proportional basis instead of winner-take-all as the state GOP decided. Romney won both states. 
 
 On Tuesday, about four in 10 voters interviewed as they left their polling places said they were evangelical or born again. That's about half the percentage in last week's primary states of Alabama and Mississippi, where Santorum won narrowly. Despite an unusually lengthy race for the nomination, less than a third of those voting said in the polling-place survey they hoped the primary season would come to a quick end even if that meant their candidate might lose the nomination. 
 
 The findings came from preliminary results from the survey of 1,555 Illinois Republican voters, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The exit poll was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research at 35 randomly selected polling places around the state. 
 
 As Illinois Republicans voted on Tuesday, Romney raised more than $1.3 million at a luncheon in Chicago. 
 
 Illinois was the 28th state to hold a primary or caucus in the selection of delegates to the nominating convention, about halfway through the calendar of a Republican campaign that has remained competitive longer than most. 
 
 A change in party rules to reduce the number of winner-take-all primaries has accounted for the duration of the race. But so has Romney's difficulty in securing the support of the most conservative of the GOP political base. Santorum and Gingrich have struggled to emerge as the front-runner's sole challenger from the right. 
 
 ___ 
 
 David Espo reported from Washington
– Mitt Romney rolled to an easy win in the Illinois primary tonight, reports AP. With 98% of precincts reporting, he has 47% of the vote, well ahead of Rick Santorum (35%), Ron Paul (9%), and Newt Gingrich (8%). "Thank you Illinois," Romney said. "What a night." He congratulated his opponents but then focused his speech entirely on President Obama: "It's time to say this word: Enough." The Romney camp clearly hopes that the convincing win will get national Republicans to solidify behind him once and for all, notes Politico. Santorum speech: Speaking in Pennsylvania, Santorum made clear he's not going anywhere. He congratulated Romney but noted that he, too, will pick up delegates. He told supporters that America doesn't need a "manager" as president but a leader who can bring fundamental change. (Next up is Louisiana on Saturday, where Santorum is expected to do well.) Gingrich snipes: He issued a statement saying Republicans need a nominee who can do more than just outspend opponents by a wide margin, reports CBS News. Exit polls: One finding is that voters don't mind the prolonged race; two-thirds said they wanted their candidate to win, even if it took months longer, notes the Washington Post. In good news for Romney, 37% said electability was the nominee's most important attribute, compared with 20% who wanted a "true conservative."