In the news:
Originally published February 6, 2012 at 4:31 PM | Page modified February 7, 2012 at 6:15 AM
Romney takes aim at Santorum
If Rick Santorum does well in Minnesota's caucuses Tuesday, it would interrupt Mitt Romney's efforts to present an unchallenged march to the Republican presidential nomination after his consecutive victories in Florida and Nevada.
The New York Times
On the Campaign Trail
Gingrich faults Egypt policy: Newt Gingrich said Monday Egypt's plan to put 19 Americans working for pro-democracy groups on criminal trial reminded him of President Carter and Iran in 1979. "We now have the Obama hostage crisis to resemble the Carter hostage crisis," he said. Gingrich called Egypt's government "the latest product of Obama's belief in an 'Arab spring' " and denounced Muslim radicals who have sought power after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak. "This is like the 1930s," Gingrich said. "I mean this is a mindless capitulation to forces that are contrary to our entire civilization."Nevada tally: Mitt Romney won the Nevada GOP caucuses with 50 percent of the vote, giving him 14 delegates. Newt Gingrich won six delegates, Ron Paul won five and Rick Santorum got three. Nevada awarded its 28 delegates in proportion to the statewide vote. Romney now has a total of 101 delegates to the party's national convention, including endorsements from Republican National Committee members who will automatically attend the gathering and can support any candidate they choose. Gingrich has a total of 32, Santorum has 17 and Paul has nine. It will take 1,144 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.
Next up: Caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota on Tuesday. Colorado has a total of 36 delegates, including 33 at stake in its caucuses. Minnesota has 40 delegates, including 37 up for grabs in its caucuses.
Missouri will hold a Republican presidential primary Tuesday, but the party will not award any delegates based on the outcome. Instead, Missouri will select delegates through a system of GOP caucuses and conventions that starts with local caucuses March 17.
Santorum vs. Indiana: An Indiana elections official said Monday that GOP presidential contender Rick Santorum still lacks the signatures needed to make it onto the state's May primary ballot despite efforts to overturn Marion County's decision to throw out 49 signatures. But Cindy Mowery, Republican member of Marion County Board of Voter Registration, said the signatures are still invalid. Statewide candidates in Indiana, from president to governor, all have to collect 500 valid signatures from registered voters in each of the state's nine congressional districts to appear on the May 8 ballot. Marion County officials decided last week that Santorum was 24 votes shy of the 500 needed in the state's 7th District. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney all qualified for the ballot.
Even as Mitt Romney tries to fend off the continuing challenge from Newt Gingrich and focus his attention on President Obama, he is now being forced to deal with another rival.
Rick Santorum appears poised to do well in Minnesota's caucuses Tuesday. If he wins there, it would interrupt Romney's efforts to present an unchallenged march to the Republican presidential nomination after his consecutive victories in Florida and Nevada.
So Monday, Romney's campaign began unloading criticism on Santorum, who had largely escaped being the target of Romney's formidable campaign machine.
"Rick Santorum is a nice guy, but he is simply not ready to be president," Tim Pawlenty, a former governor of Minnesota and a top surrogate for Romney, wrote in a statement Monday morning.
"Even in the face of crushing federal debt, Rick Santorum voted for the infamous 'Bridge to Nowhere,' " Pawlenty said. "That type of leadership will not help us rein in government and slash the unprecedented federal debt."
That was followed by two emails from Romney's campaign: one titled "Rick Santorum: Proud Defender of Earmarks and Pork-Barrel Spending," and the other titled "A Summary of Santorum's False Attacks on Massachusetts Health Care."
Santorum's campaign responded by accusing Romney's "well-financed seek-and-destroy attack machine" of becoming nervous about the threat he represents.
"Gov. Romney does what he always does and directs his well-funded attack machine to destroy the opponent," said Hogan Gidley, a spokesman for Santorum. "In the Republican Party, we have a name for someone who supports government health-care mandates, big bank bailouts and radical cap-and-trade initiatives. We call them Democrats."
Santorum's razor-thin victory in Iowa's caucuses in early January was the first and last time his campaign has posed a serious challenge to Romney.
But that could change as the campaign moves to the Midwest and the Rust Belt, where Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, might find more strength and where polls suggest Romney might have trouble connecting with voters.
Campaigning in Minnesota on Monday, Santorum once again attacked the health-care program that Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, helped push through the Legislature.
"Gov. Romney is absolutely incapable of making the case against Obamacare successfully, and therefore greatly damages our ability to win this election, this very critical election, in 2012," Santorum said, according to a report at Talking Points Memo.
Santorum accused Romney of designing a health-care plan with boards and commissions not unlike those in the new federal health-care law. Such boards were derided as "death panels" by critics two years ago.
"Why? Because they ultimately choose to ration care for people who they don't believe these procedures are effective," Santorum said, drawing a comparison between the federal and Massachusetts health-care laws.
Santorum is hoping that his criticism of Romney as insufficiently conservative will help as the campaign moves to the heartland.
His campaign announced Monday that it would challenge the decision by Indiana officials last week to deny Santorum a spot on the primary ballot. Indiana, which votes May 9, had determined that Santorum fell just short of the required signatures.
But Gidley, the Santorum spokesman, told CNN that the campaign had found enough mistakes in the state's review of their signatures to challenge the ballot denial.
"We found 49 petition signers who were incorrectly rejected by Marion County Board of Election officials," Gidley said. "We expect a speedy recertification. And we are confident we will be on the Indiana ballot."
