Bay State voters cast ballots for Romney

Many Boston voters accurately predicted former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would win the Republican primary in the Commonwealth on Super Tuesday.

Romney won the state’s primaries with 72.1 percent of the vote on Tuesday. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, came in second with 12.1 percent and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas, came in third with 9.6 percent.

President Barack Obama ran uncontested on the Democratic ballot.

Voters at exit polls said the candidates’ economic proposals carry the most weight.

If the general election were tomorrow, Boston voter Carrie Catlin said she would vote for Romney because “he has a better chance of improving the economy and Obama hasn’t been able to do it so far.”

“He’s got the right set of business skills and people supporting him to be able to effect some changes,” she said.

Despite her beliefs that Romney would be a better president than the other Republican hopefuls, Catlin said in this round of voting, she and her husband put her support behind Paul.

Standing with her husband just outside of the voting area in the basement of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square, she called her vote for Paul “a bit of a protest vote against Romney.”

Romney did not fulfill his responsibilities as governor of the Commonwealth properly, she said, and “we wanted him to know that people out there don’t just vote for him because he was our governor.”

Her husband, Steve Wintermeier, said although he does not agree with all of Paul’s proposed policies, he appreciated Paul’s ability to rise above the arguments “about who’s the true conservative.”

Wintermeir said he would vote “for the person for president whose party does not win the U.S. Senate,” adding that the potential one-party rule concerns him.

Many Bostonians exiting the polls, however, said they supported specific candidates rather than specific parties, with 72.1 percent of Massachusetts’ voters backing Mitt Romney.

“I like his approach, just his general mindset,” said Ward 5 voter Trenton, who asked to keep his last name anonymous. “I just agree with a lot of the kinds of things he would do or has done in the past, either here as governor of Massachusetts, or in his experiences as CEO of the companies that he’s run.”

He said Romney seems to be the most capable of not only defeating Obama, but of maintaining a strong presidency if elected.

“He definitely comes off as someone who’s had to make decisions before, as an executive, and so it seems like he tries to gather as much information from people that work for him to make an informed decision,” Trenton said.

Mark Lange, a Ward 4 voter, said although he would vote for Romney in the general election, within the Republican Party, “there’s no great feeling of passion for Romney.”

“He’ll say anything to get a vote,” he said. “I don’t think he has any convictions.”

Lange said he voted for Paul on Tuesday, calling the Texan candidate terrific on economic issues.

“His message on the economic issues and on the debt is spot on,” he said. “He understands business cycles – he understands the foolishness of creating money and the danger that that’s going to create.”

But Lange also said Paul’s foreign policy stances “scare” him. Santorum does not present much of an alternative, he said.

“Santorum pushes all the wrong buttons for the majority of Americans,” Lange said. “[He’s] not a bad guy, but he’s a career politician – I don’t trust him on the economy and I think he’s . . . dangerous with his emphasis on social issues.”