The Other McCain

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Illinois Primary Today; Rick Santorum Schedules Rally in Gettysburg, Pa.

Posted on | March 20, 2012 | 16 Comments

Polls indicate a sizeable win for Mitt Romney in Illinois, so if you live in Illinois and were planning to vote for Romney, you can just stay home.

Meanwhile, Rick Santorum will be in Pennsylvania tonight:

Former Pennsylvania senator and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will be visiting Gettysburg on Tuesday, according to his communications director.
He will hold a campaign party at the Gettysburg Hotel in Lincoln Square starting at 8 p.m. The event is open to the public.
Afterwards, Santorum is scheduled to head back to Louisiana for more campaigning before Saturday’s caucuses in the state.

So his speech tonight will be “The Gettysburg Address,” and because Gettyburg is barely an hour’s drive from my house, I plan to be there, and then I’ll drive a thousand miles to Lousiana, which holds its primary Saturday. You may be wondering, “Why is Santorum in Pennsylvania?”

Check the schedule: The Maryland primary is two weeks away on April 3; Gettysburg isn’t just an hour away from my house in Hagerstown, but is also driving distance from Frederick and Maryland’s D.C. suburbs. I’ll expect to see a lot of Marylanders tonight in Gettysburg, and I also expect to see lots of Santorum’s Pennsylvania supporters crossing the Mason-Dixon Line to work as volunteers in his Maryland campaign. And as Pennsylvania holds its primary three weeks later on April 24, the Maryland team will be expected to return the favor.

All the pundits have counted Maryland as an easy win for Romney and maybe they’re right, but there will be a serious campaign here. Santorum’s campaign is arguing that the media’s delegate count is misleading, and that Romney’s lead isn’t as “inevitable” as it looks.

UPDATE: Alexander Burns of Politico reports:

Rick Santorum’s campaign and super PAC have been outspent by a margin of 7 to 1 in the Illinois primary, with forces supporting Mitt Romney shelling out a total of about $3.7 million on the airwaves, according to a GOP media-buying source.

Congratulations, Mitt: When it comes to running attack ads against Republicans, your campaign has vastly outspent Democrats this year!

 

 

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Category: Election 2012, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum

Comments

  • Pathfinder’s wife

    whoo, yay…I wasn’t planning on voting for Mitt…but the temptation to just stay home has been creeping up on me lately

    Being an IL voter will do that to you.

  • Later

    Newt on Rick:

    “The leadership of the Rick Santorum Republicans proved disastrous:

    The Rick Santorum Republicans never passed a single balanced budget,
    after inheriting balanced budgets and record surpluses. They racked up
    $1.7 trillion in deficits and increased the average number of earmarks
    by almost 500 percent. The Senator even voted for the Bridge to Nowhere.The Rick Santorum Republicans increased the national debt by 12
    percent and voted to raise the debt ceiling five times to accommodate
    it—even while dealing with a president of their own party.The Senator voted with Democrats and Big Labor to defeat the
    National Right to Work Act of 1995. He justifies this vote saying he was
    representing Pennsylvania where forced unionization is the law but
    today, PA Senator Toomey is cosponsoring nearly identical legislation.The Senator voted with Democrats and Big Labor — repeatedly — to
    protect Davis-Bacon legislation, an old law on the books that requires
    the federal government to pay more to its contractors. He was so wedded
    to big labor that he even voted against waiving Davis-Bacon in times of
    emergency. By voting to protect Davis-Bacon, the Senator cost taxpayers
    many millions in higher taxes, deficits, and national debt.The Senator sponsored the “Santorum Amendment” to raise the Minimum
    Wage 21.4%. He supported Ted Kennedy’s proposed hike in the Minimum
    Wage. And, in a 2006 campaign commercial, he bragged about his support
    for a higher Minimum Wage.The Rick Santorum Republicans abandoned their principles, resulting
    in the worst electoral defeat for Republicans since Watergate and the
    loss of GOP Congressional majorities in both the House and Senate. This
    left Congress in the hands of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. And in
    destroying the Republican brand of balanced budgets and spending
    control, the Rick Santorum Republican failure gave us Barack Obama in
    2008.

    This is not a record of leadership to be proud of, and in 2006 it
    resulted in a catastrophic 18-point defeat. I fear it would do so again
    in the fall of 2012 if he were the nominee.”

    http://www.redstate.com/newt_gingrich/2012/03/19/yes-past-performance-does-indicate-future-results/

  • robertstacymccain

    Yes, it’s important that the candidate who has repeatedly placed fourth in primaries and caucuses, and whose campaign may already be bankrupt, do everything in his power to damage the only other conservative alternative to Mitt Romney.

  • http://roughedgesandsharpelbows.blogspot.com/ Brian D Paasch

    That’s okay, in IL, five dead people will vote, three times each (!), in your place.

  • http://roughedgesandsharpelbows.blogspot.com/ Brian D Paasch

    Ugh.
    Text. Wrap.

  • http://roughedgesandsharpelbows.blogspot.com/ Brian D Paasch

    If I were Santorum, I’d have given serious thought to skipping IL. Why spend any money on that uber-liberal state? Romney is the Obama with an -R candidate so he’ll get the GOP nomination (and then be crushed in the general) so why bother with the time or money?

  • Later

     Is that Santorum’s record or isn’t it?

    Doesn’t sound all that conservative to me.  I don’t give a rat’s patoot about his social stances.

    Most of us want to fix the economy.

    Unfortunately Paul Ryan or Mitch Daniels isn’t running.

  • robertstacymccain

    When Red State publishes Rick Santorum’s attack on Newt’s record, let me know, OK?

  • Pathfinder’s wife

    Because outside of some  counties (and even within them) most IL residents have a serious hate-on for establishment canidates (familiarity likely breeds contempt I guess), so there was some ground to go hunting on here.

    I would wager if IL had gone earlier in the year before voter malaise set in (which every IL voter suffers from, see above) then any of the other canidates (including Santorum) would have taken IL going away — even the Chi voters are starting to not listen to the ward heelers.

  • Mortimer Snerd

    “Is that Santorum’s record or isn’t it?”

    Yep.  He had to take a few for the team :>)

  • Mortimer Snerd
  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

    Sobbing Sissies for Santorum again?  He and his supporters love to whine about being outspent.  Because IF Santorum had raised more money, he would have donated it to an orphanage. ;-)

    That is why Romney didn’t challenge the lack of proper signatures  on TEN of Santorum’s district slates’ petitions in Illinois – didn’t want to make you cry.

  • SDN

    When was Rick Santorum Senate Majority Leader? I missed that…

  • Pathfinder’s wife

    This is true.

    But I have to admit: the attitude of the Romney camp isn’t encouraging people to run out and vote for the guy (this should concern you).

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  • Quartermaster

    Myself, I don’t care what Red State has to say. Santorum is a Neoconservative, not a Conservative. In simple words, he’s a RINO like Mittens he just prefers big government along his lines, instead of Mitts, but the outcome for all of us will be little different.

    Neither Mittens or Ricky are electable.

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