Santorum gets big bounce
Raises money, staff as he edges ahead of Romney in latest GOP national polls
BOISE, Idaho. — The latest Republican to surge in polls, Rick Santorum is trying to turn his newfound strength into something lasting.
Curious Republicans now pack his rallies. Supporters have funneled nearly $4 million to his formerly empty campaign account over the past seven days. And his staff is plotting an aggressive strategy to challenge Mitt Romney in Romney’s native Michigan and beyond.
But things don’t look so strong just beneath the surface.
Santorum is underfunded and outmanned. He’s still lacking in organization, a month and a half into the pri- mary season. And, after he won three contests in a single day last week, his opponents — on the right and the left — have begun their own efforts to tear him down.
An upbeat Santorum declared “We’re building” in a brief interview in Tacoma, Wash., on Tuesday before heading to Idaho for campaign events. “We’ve got a great volunteer base. In some states we’re going to have staff. Other states we aren’t . We’re going to use volunteers.”
Santorum has reason to enthusiastic. For the first time, new polls show him statistically tied or leading Romney nationally among Republican voters. The results:
Santorum had 30 percent support to 28 percent for Romney in a national poll released this week by the Pew Research Center.
Santorum had 34 percent to Romney’s 32 percent in a poll released Tuesday by CNN/ORC International.
Santorum had 30 percent and Romney 27 percent in a poll by The New York Times/cbs News.
Santorum is not as well known to GOP voters as Romney and the other two candidates, Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul. So Romney is moving to define him in a negative way.
Romney has deployed surrogates such as a former Santorum Senate colleague, Jim Talent of Missouri, to attack Santorum’s support for earmarks in Congress. The conservative Club for Growth has been equally critical. And Romney has been aggressive on the campaign trail, sug- gesting in recent days that Santorum and Gingrich represent the kind of overspending Washington insiders the tea party abhors.
At the same time, left-leaning groups such as the Center For American Progress and Emily’s List are going after Santorum’s comments on women. A staunch social conservative, Santorum has been critical of women serving in combat and sometimes in the workplace.
Santorum says he’s not going to sit back and just take such shots.
On Tuesday, he began running ads on Fox News Channel in Michigan. It was a signal to supporters — and to donors — that Santorum planned to contest the state where Romney grew up and his father served as governor.