On the same date as Michigan voted, Arizona also had its primary contest. Although Arizona and Michigan both had about the same amount of delegates at stake, (29 and 30, respectively), most of the focus was on the Michigan contest.

Arizona, of course, is a pretty important state. In the Western part of the United States, Arizona is the most populous state to vote Republican. Arizona's politics and demographics are somewhat hard to place, if such categorization makes sense. While in some ways it is a mountain state, it is also a southwestern state. And it could also be viewed as an extension of suburban southern California. It has an older population, and immigration has been a big political issue. It also has a fairly large Mormon population, which was seen as a big bonus to Mitt Romney.

But for all of the possible way that Arizona's demographics could have broken apart, it was the form of the race that would determine its contents. The Arizona primary was Winner Take All, unlike Michigan, where the delegates were divided by congressional district. Since Romney was considered the front runner in Arizona, Rick Santorum chose not to dedicate time and money to the contest, since a near miss in Arizona would get him no delegates, while a near miss in Michigan would still get him some delegates.

Romney ended up winning by a strong plurality, 47.3% of the vote against Santorum's 26.6%.

There are two things that I took away from the Arizona contest. First, since Romney has now won Nevada as well as Arizona, and had a fairly good showing in Colorado, it seems that Romney will have good results across the mountain west. Arizona is also, to date, one of only three states won by McCain in the 2008 general election to hold a primary. It is also the first state won by McCain in 2008 to be won by Romney in the primary. This is something that Romney will have to do, since he has not yet been heavily tested amongst states with a large proportion of the Republican base.

So there are lessons to be taken away from Arizona, but it could also be correct to say that the only thing to take away from Arizona are Romney's 29 delegates.

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