"That's going to be the make or break day for Republicans," Berry said of the day when more than 20 states nationwide, including Utah, California, New York and Illinois, will cast caucus and primary votes.

And no matter what happens to Romney before Feb. 5, Berry said he has enough cash to continue at least through Feb. 5. Romney, who has a personal fortune estimated at $350 million, has already loaned his campaign millions of dollars.

Harvesting delegates

Forti suggested Romney is not counting on winning the biggest states up for grabs on Feb. 5 but rather putting together wins in states such as Utah and Arizona that, combined, add up to more convention delegates than, say, New York.

"The early states are much about momentum. By the time we get to Feb. 5, we're counting on the early momentum to get the delegates," Forti said. "There's a lot of states out there and a lot of delegates. It's not necessarily the big states (that count), it's the number of delegates."

Both Republicans and Democrats have a complicated system of allotting delegates to their national conventions based on caucus, primary and, in some cases, state party convention results.

The process has been made even more difficult to follow this year because several states scheduled their elections before the Feb. 5 date set by both Republicans and Democrats. Without party permission, those states holding earlier elections lose delegates.

And while being penalized delegates has had little impact on the importance of New Hampshire or Florida on Jan. 29, Wyoming, which moved its GOP convention to Jan. 5, appears to be attracting limited attention.

In fact, Romney himself won't be campaigning in Wyoming before Republicans make their pick for a presidential nominee. Instead, two of Romney's five sons, Josh and Craig, are expected to attend the convention in his place.

Romney's competition for the GOP nomination is coming largely from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain and former Tennessee U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson.

While there are more GOP candidates out there, such as Libertarian-leaning Ron Paul, it's those five who are attracting the most attention in polls. Especially Huckabee, a Baptist minister, who has focused new and unwelcome attention on Romney's Mormonism.

Once seen as a long shot, Huckabee shot up in the polls in recent weeks and now leads in Iowa. He's also challenging longtime national front-runner Giuliani in some polls, as is McCain.