Some say it failed, but Rick Santorum’s attempts to woo Democrats, coupled with Democratic attempts to “game” the system as part of an “operation chaos” scenario, made the race much closer than it would have otherwise been.

According to exit polls, Democrats represented 9 percent of the overall vote — and Santorum won the Democratic vote 53 to 17 percent — that works out to be abound a 32,000 vote margin (or 3.2 percent of the total 998,842 turnout).

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney won easily among Republicans by a wide 48-37 margin, and even narrowly edged Santorum among Independents.

But perhaps the most telling statistics, however, was that people who strongly support the tea party — and people who strongly oppose the tea party — both favored Rick Santorum.

It didn’t put Santorum over the top, but it sure made the race a lot closer.