When Rivals Concede, but Are in No Rush to Endorse

Mitt Romney has vanquished virtually all of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. Only Representative Ron Paul of Texas remains in the race; the rest, even Newt Gingrich, have bowed to the reality that Mr. Romney will be the nominee.

But there is one thing that several of them have stubbornly not done, even in the face of a Republican establishment that is growing impatient with them: endorse Mr. Romney.

Representative Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Mr. Gingrich have all resisted the urgings of their peers to get on board the Mitt Romney Express. Their hesitance is raising concerns among the power brokers in Washington, who wonder what game they are playing. And the pressure is increasing.

Endorsements from one or all three could come as early as this week. Or maybe not. Here are some of the considerations that may be weighing on the minds of the former hopefuls as they decide whether to announce their support for Mr. Romney:

CONSTITUENCIES All three of the onetime Republican front-runners have large groups of fans who do not want to see them cave to Mr. Romney. Moving too quickly to back the party’s nominee could seem like a slap in the face to those who worked hardest for them during the primaries.

Mrs. Bachmann is in a re-election campaign for her House seat in Minnesota, which makes it even more important that she not seem like a turncoat to the base of conservative activists who have supported her for years. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, she made it clear that Mr. Romney would have to wait a little longer.

“As the line says in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ‘All in good time, my pretty,’ ” Mrs. Bachmann said. “It will happen.”

FUND-RAISING Running for president is a costly affair, and each of the candidates needs to keep raising money to help pay off campaign debts. Doing so may get a bit harder once they have thrown in the towel and endorsed the party’s candidate.

Mr. Gingrich, in particular, faces a tough financial situation. His campaign reported more than $4 million in debts at the end of the last month. Once he endorses Mr. Romney publicly, his potential donors may wonder why they should give money to him instead of Mr. Romney.

Mr. Gingrich has said he will officially drop out of the race this week. ( Fox News reported over the weekend that it will be on Wednesday.) And his aides have hinted that he will endorse Mr. Romney at the time. But if he holds back at all, money could be the reason.

PRIDE Of all the reasons for not endorsing Mr. Romney, the strongest may be the simplest. After months of criticizing Mr. Romney as the weakest possible Republican nominee, the defeated candidates are perhaps just struggling to get out the warm words.

That is surely the case with Mr. Santorum, whose bitter fight with Mr. Romney in the waning weeks of the primary season seemed to leave him with a particularly bad taste in his mouth.

Asked by Piers Morgan of CNN last week whether he was endorsing Mr. Romney, Mr. Santorum danced around the question.

“You can call it whatever you want,” Mr. Santorum said, adding a minute later that Mr. Romney “is going to be the Republican nominee.”

“I’m going to be for the Republican nominee,” he said. “We’re going to do what we can to beat Barack Obama.”

LEVERAGE For all of the onetime candidates, an endorsement ends whatever leverage they might hope to have at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in August. All three would like to have featured speaking slots and influence over the party’s platform.

Aides to all three have denied that they are seeking any kind of deal with Mr. Romney’s camp for convention influence. But all have said publicly that they hope to have an impact on the direction of the party — a conservative impact, they say — even without being the nominee.

The reluctance to offer a full-blown endorsement suggests that the candidates are looking for ways to exert that influence before they fade into the background of the coming fight between Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama.