By Kristin Jensen and Stephanie Armour - Feb 14, 2012 5:53 AM GMT+0700
Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum has vaulted into a front-runner’s position with Mitt Romney in a Pew Research Center poll that also shows both losing to President Barack Obama in hypothetical matchups.
Santorum drew the backing of 30 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters in the Feb. 8-12 poll, while Romney got 28 percent, Pew said on its website. Obama held a 10-percentage-point lead over Santorum and an edge of 8 points over Romney among a survey of all registered voters, Washington- based Pew said.
Romney’s status in the race was shaken when Santorum won all three contests on Feb. 7 -- in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. Santorum charged yesterday that Romney has responded by making “desperate” attacks on his conservative credentials to regain his footing.
“Another candidate has come up to challenge him, and this time he’s having trouble finding out how to go after someone who is a solid conservative, who’s got a great track record of attracting independents and Democrats and winning states as a conservative,” Santorum said in an interview on ABC Television’s “This Week.”
‘Desperate Things’
Romney’s attacks show “you reach a point where desperate people do desperate things,” Santorum said.
Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, is campaigning today in the state of Washington, where he has a rally scheduled in Tacoma. Before the appearance, the Romney campaign organized supporters in the state to tout their candidate and his Feb. 11 win in Maine’s caucuses.
“There’s a lot of campaign momentum,” said Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a U.S. representative who is Romney’s campaign chairwoman in Washington, during a conference call for reporters today. “There’s no question in my mind that he’s the most electable of the Republican candidates.”
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is campaigning in Arizona today, with a rally scheduled in Mesa. The state holds its primary on Feb. 28, along with Michigan.
Santorum and onetime U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich have been vying for weeks to become the chief alternative to Romney and unite the conservative Republican activists who haven’t warmed to Romney’s candidacy. Today, National Review Online suggested Gingrich should step aside.
‘Proper Course’
“When he led Santorum in the polls, he urged the Pennsylvanian to leave the race,” the publication said in an editorial on its website. “On his own arguments, the proper course for him now is to endorse Santorum and exit.”
The National Review in December warned Republicans against nominating Gingrich, saying he might ruin the opportunity to win the White House. Today, the publication said “it would be a grave mistake for the party to make someone with such poor judgment and persistent unpopularity its presidential nominee.”
Gingrich will be campaigning in California later today, holding a “Hispanic Leadership Event” in South El Monte and a reception in Pasadena.
In the Pew Poll, Gingrich drew the support of 17 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters, while U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas got the backing of 12 percent.
Support for Romney and Gingrich in the Republican race is virtually the same as recorded in a Jan. 4-8 national Pew poll. The backing for Santorum has almost doubled.
Obama Matchups
In the matchups with Obama, the president led Romney, 52 percent to 44 percent, among all registered voters and ran ahead of Santorum, 53 percent to 43 percent. Obama topped Gingrich 57 percent to 39 percent.
The poll’s margin of error in its survey of Republican and Republican-leaning voters is plus-or-minus 5 percentage points; for all registered voters, it is 3.5 points.
While Romney has struggled to unite the party behind his candidacy, he scored a victory this weekend in a straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference, a group of activists who oppose government spending, abortion rights and gay marriage.
Santorum, who has a record of working against abortion rights, yesterday downplayed the CPAC straw poll’s importance, saying Paul had won it in the past by paying for participants’ tickets. He declined to say whether the Romney campaign had rigged this year’s contest when asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
Ticket Question
“You have to talk to the Romney campaign and how many tickets they bought,” he said. “We’ve heard all sorts of things.”
Santorum has “a history of making statements that aren’t grounded in the truth,” Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Romney, said in an e-mail. “Mitt Romney won the CPAC straw poll.”
In a Feb. 10 speech at the CPAC gathering, Romney termed himself “severely conservative” during his governorship as he sought support from his audience.
The Pew poll shows that among his party’s electorate, those viewing him as a “strong conservative” has dipped to 42 percent from 53 percent in a November survey.
Saying the Republican nomination contest is now a “two- person race,” Santorum said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday that he had “raised over $3 million this week alone and money continues to pour in.”
Santorum said he’s in a strong position heading into the primaries in Arizona and Michigan, where Romney’s father, George Romney, was governor. Santorum’s wins last week underscore his potential strength in the Midwest and Mountain West, particularly in areas with large blue-collar populations.
Ad Dollars
Romney didn’t devote many resources to the Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado contests, none of which allotted any national convention delegates. He has millions of dollars available for television advertising in the coming weeks from his campaign and a super-PAC that supports his candidacy.
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a favorite of the Tea Party movement within the Republican Party, said on “Fox News Sunday” that Republican chances of defeating Obama won’t be hurt by an extended campaign for the party’s nomination as long as the candidates don’t spend the time attacking one another.
“They need to quit beating each other up,” said Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee. “We need to hear from our candidates the solutions, what is their plan to get us back on the right road in America? We haven’t heard that yet.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net; Stephanie Armour in Washington at sarmour@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at jcummings21@bloomberg.net
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