Why Rick Santorum's once-generous lead in Wisconsin is eroding

Christian Science Monitor ^ | March 30, 2012 | Mark Guarino

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

By the time Mitt Romney arrives in Wisconsin Friday – his first campaign stop in the state before its GOP primary on Tuesday – his challenger Rick Santorum will have already become a familiar face. Mr. Santorum has been in Wisconsin since last weekend and has dined, bowled, and played shuffleboard with residents in every pocket of the state. He’s even tossed a football at Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers.

Santorum’s once-generous lead in Wisconsin is eroding. In February, the former US senator polled at 34 percent among the state’s likely Republican voters, while Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, trailed far back at 18 percent, according to a Marquette University Law School poll.

Current Wisconsin polling shows Romney leading, 39 percent to Santorum’s 31 percent.

What happened? The easy answer is money. The Romney campaign is armed with seemingly unlimited campaign resources to flood local airwaves and phone banks, resulting in the candidate not necessarily having to step foot in the state until just before its voters head to the booths.

By early this week in Wisconsin, combined spending by the Romney campaign and Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney “super political-action committee,” totaled about $2 million in television advertising, much of it negative. By contrast, Santorum’s campaign had spent under $100,000 by last Sunday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the Red White and Blue Fund, a super PAC backing Santorum, had spent about $300,000.

[newzjunkey]

they became gaffes because he could not articulate his positions in a way that sounded reasonable

Perhaps more than any factor, this is why Santorum must not be the nominee.

[Mozilla]

Romney is helping to destroy the GOP by using Obama like strong arm tactics to win at all costs. So who wants to be associated with a party like that?

[newzjunkey]

Funny that “heartless” effectively killed Gov. Perry and “sick mind” and other comments are perfectly acceptable to the sainted ex-senator’s disciples.

[gogogodzilla]

Good post...

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

Politics is a brutal sport, and always has been. You must have only been around this for a short while. This may be the most we have seen this kind of tactic in a primary race, but going all the way back to Woodrow Wilson, and forward, most every election since has been rather rough and rash.

Barry Goldwater was slaughtered by LBJ but lacked the funds to fight it. That won't be the case this election. Our side will be loaded for bear against Obama.

What ever it takes, we have to win this time. We will not survive 4 more years of Obama.

[right way right]

Post 11

That’s pretty much it.
Ricks a Conehead.

BuB Bye!

[alstewartfan]

I too used to be a union member, but never a “goon”. One guy called me “Ronnie” b/c he knew I loved Reagan. I used to blast Clinton all the time.

[alstewartfan]

I’m truly sorry. I am certain that Rick thinks that unionism has gone too far, just as you and I do. Bob

[Drew68]

Perry just defeated the EPA this past week.

Boo Ya!

Sigh... Perry would've made a great president. It's a damn shame. He dropped out too soon.

I get so pissed off to even think about it. Maybe I'll go resurrect some of those Perry-bashing threads after Mitt secures the nomination only to ask, "happy now?"

Would that be in bad form?

[dvan]

Unfortunately Rick has the tendency to open his mouth before he engages his brain.

[dvan]

Unfortunately Rick has the tendency to open his mouth before he engages his brain.

[magritte]

Would that be in bad form?

---

Most of the anti-Perry trolls disappeared after he dropped out...wonder if they were Mitt or Obama guys?

[cripplecreek]

I was AFL-CIO myself but am apparently more conservative than most FReepers.

Conservatives are really screwing themselves when they paint union members with the wide liberal brush. We'd be far more effective if we would separate private and public sector unions and drive a wedge between them.

Description of Reagan Democrats from Wiki. Many say they don't exist any more but speaking from the home of the Reagan democrats I say its crap.

The work of Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg is a classic study of Reagan Democrats. Greenberg analyzed white ethnic voters (largely unionized auto workers) in Macomb County, Michigan, just north of Detroit. The county voted 63 percent for John F. Kennedy in 1960, but 66 percent for Reagan in 1980. He concluded that "Reagan Democrats" no longer saw Democrats as champions of their working class aspirations, but instead saw them as working primarily for the benefit of others: the very poor, feminists, the unemployed, African Americans, Latinos, and other groups. In addition, Reagan Democrats enjoyed gains during the period of economic prosperity that coincided with the Reagan administration following the "malaise" of the Carter administration. They also supported Reagan's strong stance on national security and opposed the 1980s Democratic Party on such issues as pornography, crime, and high taxes.

My neighbor recently joined the UAW conservatives. The leader of the group, Terry Bowman testified on capitol hill against union political fundraising in February.

UAW Member: Union Workers 'Need to Embrace' Right-to-Work Laws

The GOP needs to stop pandering to illegals and homosexuals are start doing the right things for America.

[mylife]

Amen.

[Impy]

Give me a break, the man has won 2 primaries, his home state and the state next door.

Gingrich was ahead twice, the meaningless time before Iowa when Rick Perry once held a huge lead until he showed himself unable to debate, and briefly between NH and Florida. After losing Florida he was done and Romney would have run away with it if there wasn’t another candidate in the race.

[eddie willers]

Santorum really never had much chance anyway. He was simply the last non-Romney standing - and that was only because no one took him seriously in the first place.

Truer words have never been spoken.

[mylife]

Sadly, Perry was not at the top of his game due to his back when he entered the race,

People were ruthless with him while he was vulnerable.
He dropped out just as he was getting strong and performing in the debates

It is what it is, but I have no compassion for Santorum at this moment in time.

Santo is all over the map he is divisive and he is lecturing.
I dont like his pious ass at all.

[dforest]

Newt has not done well because of his past and the fact that people do not like him for the most part except on FR. He is unable to relate to the voters. He has also ran a poor campaign. He had some good people but he didn’t listen to them and thought that he and Calista knew better.

Here, all his warts are wiped away, not so outside the bubble of FR. The people remember him colluding with the Global Warming crowd and posing with Nancy. That does not inspire trust.

[eddie willers]

No candidate who thinks as President that he needs to begin a national conversation on why contraception is "not okay" is going to win. It's just not going to happen. Santorum never had a chance to reach outside of his social conservative base because he is too easy to bait into talking about condoms, porn, etc

And regardless of how some try to defend it, taking a dead baby home is just creepy.

[mylife]

Since Saintorim has had a lead, debates are no longer a consideration.

Saintorum sucked in the debates.
He was a petulant wallflower.

More to the point his record sucks.