OUR island was recently in the rare position of enjoying the national limelight thanks to GOP presidential aspirant Mitt Romney's victory in the Guam Republican caucus.

Of course, it helped that the Guam and CNMI votes were held on a Saturday. Since we are one day ahead, the news of Romney's victory broke on a Friday in the mainland and almost all the major media outlets picked it up.

The Romney camp made a big deal out of the Guam and CNMI victories because it offset Rick Santorum's big win in Kansas. Romney was also on his way to what he termed his “away games” in the south, where Romney wasn't expected to perform well. Romney's victory in the islands was seen to give him momentum going into the south or at the very least counteract the losses he would eventually suffer there.

As for Rick Santorum, he did try to win Guam over, making phone calls and talking to people here, but he was obviously unprepared. As one senator said, Santorum wasn't very cognizant of the issues Guam was facing. At the very least, he or his aides should have prepped on Guam's major issues. And obviously Guam still hasn't recovered from the Santorum remark about sending unwanted liberal judges to Guam.

In contrast, the Romney camp was obviously well-briefed on Guam's issues. Romney actively sought Gov. Eddie Calvo's endorsement (which he got even before the caucus) and set up conference calls with high-ranking Adelup officials and Calvo himself.

Romney even took the trouble of sending his son Matt Romney to Guam and Saipan to meet personally with the delegates. In appreciation, Lt. Gov. Ray Tenorio made a motion to suspend the rules and let the Guam caucus express its preference by raising hands so that Matt Romney can see for himself the overwhelming support that his dad has on Guam.

As a result of all this attention, Romney won all votes in Guam and the CNMI for a total of 18 delegate votes. Along with wins in the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa as well as an expected victory in the Puerto Rico caucus this Sunday, Romney has clearly become the candidate of what former Office of Insular Affairs head David Cohen describes as the “Island Caucus.”

Writing in The Daily Caller news website, Cohen pointed out that this Island Caucus from the U.S. territories collectively controls more GOP delegates than all but seven states.

“The Island Caucus will provide more delegates than Florida this year, more than Kansas, more than Tennessee, more than North Carolina, more than Missouri, more than New Jersey, more than Virginia. Not bad for a group of U.S. citizens who can't even vote in November's presidential election. The territories will collectively supply almost twice as many delegates as Michigan and more than twice as many as states such as Iowa, Arizona, Nevada and South Carolina. Of the states that have held primaries or caucuses thus far, only Ohio and Georgia award more delegates than the combined territories. The territories are more important than ever this year, since so many states have been docked delegates for moving their primaries up,” Cohen wrote.

Considering the millions of dollars that all of the candidates have poured into states that award far fewer delegates, Cohen pointed out that Romney's modest investment in the territories “has probably been as cost-effective as any expenditure that any of the candidates has made during the course of this campaign.”

Jonathan V. Last, writing in the Weekly Standard, said this is the result of Romney's Bain Capital training, which enables him to spot undervalued assets, leverage built-in advantages, and harness a multiplier effect.

“Earlier in the week, we noted that Mitt Romney won nine delegates from Guam, where only 215 people voted. That's impressive efficiency. But it's nothing compared with the work Romney's campaign did in American Samoa. Romney won nine delegates from American Samoa too. Want to guess how many voters caucused there? Seventy. That's not a typo. Seventy voters got to decide nine delegates. All this means that the Romney campaign has now earned 34 delegates from non-state territories: Which is almost as many delegates as Ron Paul has, total, about half his total delegate haul for Southern states (not counting Florida) where he faced competition from Gingrich and Santorum, and enough to be the difference,” Last wrote.

ABC News analyst Rick Klein echoes this sentiment, saying Romney's path to the Republican presidential nomination is being powered in part by some “very, very small” victories.

“That means a handful of contests where turnout is rivaled by class presidency elections in midsize high schools may end up being responsible for selecting the party's nominee,” Klein wrote.

With its growing clout, members of the Island Caucus are realizing that by banding together, they can have a stronger voice in national politics. This was not lost on Gov. Calvo who spoke to CNMI Gov. Benigno Fitial before the caucuses, urging him to join forces and unite so that both Guam and the CNMI can together generate a larger vote.

Reunification, anyone?