Rick Santorum scores triple win, but no delegates

Rick Santorum wins caucuses in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri.

The Republican presidential contest is a two-man race no more.

Rick Santorum proved that the 2012 primary election still has a few surprises left, after he went three for three in Tuesday’s contests and once again shook up the GOP nomination battle.

Santorum, in perhaps the biggest upset of the night, was declared the winner of the Colorado caucuses -- a contest Mitt Romney had been leading in recent polls and won in the 2008 race. The former Pennsylvania senator also won the Minnesota caucuses and the non-binding Missouri GOP primary.

Unfortunately, no delegates are at stake.

A cynic might say that tonight’s Republican contests in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri deserve an asterisk. In Minnesota and Colorado, which will hold caucuses, voters will pick their preferred presidential candidate in a nonbinding straw poll, while picking delegates to county and regional conventions in a separate vote. In Missouri, no delegates are on the line at all; the state will hold a separate caucus for that purpose on March 17.