GOP presidential nominee far from being decided

With two state presidential primary elections, a state caucus already decided and with four surviving candidates facing their first primary without Texas Governor Rick Perry, the race for the Republican presidential nomination is well underway.

After a caucus vote in Iowa and two primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich remain.

"Generally speaking, a primary vote entails a secret ballot at a polling location, where a person can arrive and vote for the preferred candidate," said Jose Villalobos, assistant professor of political science. "A caucus vote, on the other hand, is more of an open meeting, where voters discuss the candidates with each other.  Primary voting is much more like the general election and usually sees a higher turnout, while the caucus system, though, is sometimes more time consuming, provides a final opportunity for people to voice their opinions."

On Jan. 3, Iowa kicked off the voting process. In the following weeks, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Nevada and a host of other states will begin their primary elections as well. March 6, has been deemed Super Tuesday because it is the day most of the states will hold their elections at the same time--10 to be exact. The Texas primaries will be held on April 3.

"I think primaries are really effective, actually, because when you go head to head in a general election, you want someone who is really going to carry all of your party vote, you don't want to split the vote," said Josey Howard, a graduate student in history. "The primaries kind of prevent splitting the vote."

Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, has been claiming his work as a businessman in the private sector has provided him experience for the job. Santorum, a senator from Pennsylvania, has been running on a socially conservative platform with an aggressive foreign policy. Paul, a congressman from Texas and an anti-war libertarian, has been calling for smaller government and deregulation of the market. Gingrich, a former congressman from Georgia and Speaker of the House, is running on his career as a politician with the know-how to get things done in government.

"I officially do not support any one candidate, but I support the party as a whole," said Louis Southard, senior political science major and chairman of the UTEP College Republicans. "All the candidates have their ups and downs, for instance Gingrich says far-out things and Congressman Paul is advocating for a foreign policy that resembles isolationism."

Recently, Gingrich called Romney a vulture capitalist who has been "bankrupting companies and laying off employees," through his business practices with Bain Capital. He released a short anti-Romney documentary on Youtube titled "When Mitt Romney Came to Town." Critics have called Santorum's stances on foreign policy and Iran as hawkish, Santorum himself has discussed the possible assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. Paul, setting himself apart from the party platform with a more libertarian ideology, has called for an end to all major wars abroad, an end to the drug war and extreme deregulation of the market and an end to social programs such as welfare.

"Gingrich, Santorum and Perry have been splitting the more conservative Republican vote, while Ron Paul has also quite successfully garnered support of those seeking a more alternative candidate," Villalobos said.

Whoever wins the Republican nomination must still face off against President Barack Obama. That means the candidate must be able to appeal not just to Republican voters, but also to the majority of the electorate.

"There is nothing in the GOP that appeals to me," Howard said. "They're old white men and I am a young mixed-race woman who supports equal rights for everyone."

Whatever the result, Southard said the most important thing is that students participate and make their voices heard through their votes.

"I just want my peers here at UTEP to examine both of the platforms and become educated voters, because in this day and time, being an informed voter is critical." Southard said.

Henry Arrambide may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.