Rick Santorum is raising the stakes in his battle with Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination by waging an aggressive campaign in the US Midwest industrial heartland. Santorum is leading in polls of Republican voters in Michigan, Romney's home state which holds its presidential primary on February 28.
He is also leading in polls in Ohio, where he declared the state "ground zero" for his campaign on March 6, or Super Tuesday, when 10 states hold nominating contests to choose a candidate to face President Barach Obama in the November election. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, has positioned himself as the leading conservative in the race, while Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has struggled to win over the party's conservative base and has been attacked for his shifting positions on sensitive issues like abortion and health care reform.
Romney not only grew up in Michigan, he is the son of a former governor. The primaries in Michigan and Arizona on February 28 mark the end of a lull in the state-by-state contests to choose delegates to the party's national convention in late August in Tampa, Florida.
Though Santorum and Romney are close in the polls, Romney is considered the Republican front-runner nation-wide, with more delegates from state-by-state voting that are necessary to claim the party's nomination. The multimillionaire also has far more money and a much stronger campaign organisation than Santorum. The two other rivals for the Republican Party nomination are former speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich and the libertarian-leaning Texas Rep. Ron Paul.
After three events in Ohio on Friday, Santorum also planned to spend Saturday campaigning in the state, where he is actively courting small government, anti-tax tea party activists and evangelical voters. Santorum, who is known for his social conservative policies, questioned Obama's Christian values at a tea party rally in Columbus, Ohio. He said the president's agenda is "not about you. It's not about your quality of life. It's not about your jobs. It's about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology."
More delegates will be awarded in Ohio than in any other state except Georgia in the opening months of the Republican campaign. Ohio and Georgia are two of the 10 contests scheduled for March 6, a benchmark for the primary campaign that often decides who can continue to the next level. "There's no state that can shout louder. You are the biggest state. You've got the biggest trove of delegates," Santorum told the Brown County Republican Party on Friday night. "This is ground zero. Ohio."
While 63 delegates are at stake in Ohio, Georgia offers 76. Hours earlier, the former Pennsylvania senator stood at the State House in Columbus as state Attorney General Mike DeWine formally shifted his allegiance to Santorum from rival Romney, another sign that Santorum has seized the momentum in the roller coaster Republican presidential contest.
His socially conservative message has captivated crowds this week from Boise, Idaho, to Romney's hometown of Detroit to the southern Ohio village of Georgetown. "We have a culture that is in need of renewal," Santorum declared inside the Georgetown Elementary School gymnasium. "Big things are at stake. Our family. Our faith."
As the Republican candidates were distracted by their nominating fight, Obama has seen is ratings in the polls steadily rising as the poor economy by far the most important issue in this presidential race and his biggest weakness continues to show signs of a recovery. He also scored a victory this week over congressional Republicans by gaining approval of a bill to extend a payroll tax cut.
Obama, who was concluding a West Coast fundraising trip, raised $29.1 million for his campaign in January, a strong month that added to his momentum in the re-election campaign. The month's haul raises Obama's total combined fundraising for this election cycle to about $250 million.
Raising money is even more important in this election after a Supreme Court ruling opened the door to big-money donations to groups that support campaigns. The so-called super political action committees are supposed to be independent of the campaigns, but critics have pointed out the possibility for abuse. Foster Friess, the main donor behind a super political action committee supporting Santorum, created a stir Thursday when he related on MSNBC an old joke about how aspirin used to be a method for birth control. "Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraception," Friess said with a grin. "The gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly."