December 10, 2011 08:00 PM UTC

Colorado GOP Establishment Pushing Back Hard For Romney

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• by: Colorado Pols

You know the story after the release of Public Policy Polling’s numbers this week:

Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed by Public Policy Polling said they’d pick Gingrich if the state caucus were held at this point.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney only got support from 18 percent of those polled.

No other single candidate earned double digits and 16 percent remain undecided.

You might think Romney is starting to look like an underdog in Colorado, but political scientist Peter Hanson with the University of Denver says you might want to think again.

And why is that, increasingly worried top-brass Colorado Republicans hope you ask? The Hill, recapping the second half of Wednesday’s most-discussed story:

Mitt Romney significantly outperforms Newt Gingrich in a head to head match-up against President Obama in Colorado, but the president would still defeat the entire field of GOP candidates, according to a Public Policy Poll released on Wednesday.

Obama, who won Colorado easily in 2008, would defeat Gingrich 50 percent to 42 percent in the state, while Mitt Romney is within the margin of error, only trailing Obama 45 percent to 47 percent.

This is the message sources tell us is being urgently distributed to likely GOP caucusgoers by the Mitt Romney campaign in Colorado. And it’s critical to understand that despite the daily swings in polling, Romney has effectively sewn up support among just about the entire GOP leadership (sorry, Mike Coffman) in this state. These are the surrogates now working the base to quell the so-called “Gingrich surge.” In addition, Romney is still the only GOP primary candidate with a field organization on the ground of the scale needed to win the caucus. Next to Romney, we’d have to say Rep. Ron Paul is the best-organized candidate, and his perennial backers aren’t exactly Newt Gingrich friendly–or predictably transferable at all.

Ultimately, the staying power of the “Gingrich surge”–or any other Romney alternative–will be much more apparent by the date of the GOP caucuses here on February 7th. That said, we still don’t see anyone actually working to win this state other than Romney, and his defeat would come despite intense pressure from local Republican leaders on the GOP base at this point.

We honestly think the Romney insiders will be okay, Dan Maes taught them valuable lessons.