Santorum camp: Romney trying to "rig" Michigan

Rick Santorum's campaign on Thursday said Mitt Romney's campaign is trying to "rig" the Michigan primary, accusing the Romney camp of "political thuggery" for getting the Michigan GOP to change its delegate allocation rules to favor Romney.

The Michigan Republican party voted on Thursday to allocate 16 delegates to Romney and 14 to Santorum in the wake of Michigan's primary, which Romney won over Santorum by three percentage points. Romney and Santorum each won seven of the state's congressional districts, and were thus each awarded seven delegates; the state party on Wednesday voted to award Romney an additional two "at large" delegates for winning the statewide vote. 

The Santorum campaign reacted angrily to the decision, asserting that under the rules laid out before the primary, Santorum and Romney should each get 15 delegates. A split in the delegate allocation allows Santorum to claim a tie in a primary held in the state where Romney was born.

John Yob, a Santorum campaign adviser, said that it was "very very clear" based on the rules that each candidate should get one at large delegate. On a conference call with reporters Thursday, Yob suggested the rules were changed on Wednesday "essentially because [Romney] was being embarrassed by it being a tie."

In a statement, Santorum Communications Director Hogan Gidley said "we never thought the Romney campaign would try to rig the outcome of an election by changing the rules after the vote. This kind of back room dealing political thuggery just cannot and should not happen in America."

On the conference call, Santorum strategist John Brabender compared the Michigan GOP to the leaders in Iran, saying, "In this country, you don't change the rules after the voting has taken place."

Added Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine: "You don't come in the backdoor in a meeting and try to do what they have done. It is dirty politics. It's dirty tricks." DeWine said that "it just shows how desperate they must be if they would do this over one delegate."

Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul responded to the claims in a statement, saying that because Santorum's "strategy failed and Mitt Romney won, he is now attacking the Republican Party."

"The Romney campaign respects the process as determined by the Michigan state party, and we are pleased that we have been awarded a majority of the delegates," she said. "We are now focused on the upcoming contests."

Saul Anuzis, a Romney supporter and a Republican National Committeeman from Michigan, said in a statement that the Republican Credentials Committee agreed on February 4 to award the at large delegates to the statewide winner. But he added that "there was an error in the memo drafted and sent to the respective campaigns."

"There were questions raised at the time the memo was drafted as to whether the legal language used was accomplishing the goal of the committee and we were advised that it was, but now it is clear that the memo did not properly communicate the intent of the committee," he wrote.

Anuzis concluded that while the committee regretted the error, the committee affirmed in a 4-2 vote Wednesday night that the intent was clear. He said no candidate should have declared the delegate count before the party.

"This is much to do about nothing," he said.

However, another member of that committee, former Attorney General Mike Cox, told the Associated Press he had voted against the change in the rules, saying, "I have this crazy idea that you follow the rules." Cox, a Romney supporter, said "I'd love to give the at-large delegates to Mitt Romney, but our rules provide for strict apportionment."

Matt Frendewey, communications director for the Michigan GOP, told CBS News that the charges of "thuggery" are "ludicrous."

"The idea that somehow 24 days prior to votes being cast there was some collusion is ludicrous," he said. "The committee met, they were unanimous in their intent. Whether or not I communicated effectively doesn't change what they did on February fourth."

CBS News is estimating Michigan's delegate allocation based on the pre-election plan received from the Republican National Committee and the Michigan state party prior to the election. That plan, as understood by CBS News, called for proportional allocation of the state's at-large delegates for candidates with more than 15 percent of the vote. (Neither Ron Paul nor Newt Gingrich reached that threshold.)

Based on the pre-election plan, CBS News is currently allocating one at-large delegate to Romney and one to Santorum. Currently, the CBS News allocation in Michigan is 13 delegates for Romney, 13 for Santorum and four not yet allocated, since there are still some precincts outstanding.

Additional reporting by CBS News Senior Producer Caroline Horn.