Romney ditches Puerto Rico for Illinois

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney returns to the Northwest suburbs today for a town-hall meeting in Vernon Hills.

That meeting is set for 7:25 p.m. at the Sullivan Community Center gymnasium, 635 N. Aspen Drive.

Other events today are a pancake brunch in Moline and an afternoon appearance in Rockford.

Romney dramatically curtailed his weekend trip to the Puerto Rico, which holds its primary today, in favor of spending more time in Illinois, where polls have indicated it could be a tight Illinois race between him and chief rival Rick Santorum. Romney had planned to spend the weekend in Puerto Rico and visit a polling place Sunday, but instead left the island immediately after a morning appearance.

Santorum left Puerto Rico earlier this week and spent the morning in Missouri, where he already won a primary that awarded no delegates. Missouri Republicans were meeting in county caucuses Saturday, the first step toward choosing delegates to the national convention who are committed to specific candidates.

Much of the public polling shows Romney ahead in Illinois, and aides say he's helped by urban and suburban voters in and around Chicago.

But they say that after the ups and downs of the past few months, they're not taking the state for granted.

“This is not a cycle for confidence. This is a cycle for hard work,” said Ron Kaufman, a top Romney adviser.

To that end, Romney now has a full day of campaigning in Illinois today, with three campaign stops and an appearance on Fox News Sunday.

While shopping for tropical fruit in Puerto Rico Saturday, Romney said he was “cautiously optimistic that we're going to do well in Puerto Rico.”

He was less certain about Illinois.

“You know, I hope that we're going to do well there as well. But I'm going to be there this afternoon, so we'll see,” Romney said.

Currently, Romney has 438 delegates, compared to Santorum's 239. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, of Georgia, has 139. Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas, has 69.

Associated Press contributed to this article.