2 days ago Poll: Santorum remains on top in Michigan

 

 

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CNN's Ashley Killough

(CNN) - A new poll indicates Rick Santorum is holding onto the top spot in Michigan, the native state of his chief rival Mitt Romney.

Thirty-seven percent of likely Republican primary voters said they would back Santorum, while 32% preferred Romney, according to a new American Research Group survey.

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While the five-point margin falls within the sampling error, it represents the same margin between the two candidates as a similar poll taken earlier than week. On Monday, Santorum held a 33% to 27% advantage over Romney.
Michigan, which holds its primary on February 28, has long been considered home turf for Romney, whose father once governed the Wolverine State. The candidate also carried the state in a much-needed victory in the 2008 Republican primary.
In the last few days, Michigan airwaves have been prime battleground for the campaigns and super PACs, with a major cash flow pouring into ad buys.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul came in third place with 15% support, according to the new survey. Meanwhile, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came in fourth with 10%, down 11 percentage points since Monday's results. Five percent were undecided.
Also notable, among likely Republican primary voters who will definitely vote in the primary, Santorum held an even wider advantage over Romney, 38% to 30%. And among self-identified independents and Democrats, Santorum led with 40% to Romney's 27%.
Michigan has an open primary in which any registered voter can participate.
The American Research Group conducted the survey between February 15 and February 16, interviewing 600 likely Republican primary voters by phone, with a sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.

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Romney: Santorum not fiscal conservative

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CNN Political Producer Rachel Streitfeld

Boise, Idaho (CNN) - Mitt Romney unleashed his harshest public attacks to date on his surging rival, Rick Santorum, during a rally in Boise Friday.

The former Massachusetts governor told an audience of more than one thousand people that Santorum was not a fiscal conservative, and accused him of contributing to the rising federal deficit during his time in the Senate.

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"I know that Sen. Santorum is getting his moment in the spotlight now, which is a good thing. I hope people take a very close look at his record," Romney said. "He voted to raise the debt ceiling five different times without compensating cuts. And he's a big proponent of earmarks."
Romney added: "If you want a fiscal conservative you can't vote for Rick Santorum, 'cause he's not."
The GOP candidate has not directly criticized Santorum in campaign events in over a week.
However, Romney's campaign and an outside group supporting him have applied increasing pressure on the former senator, who is riding on a wave of momentum after a trio of wins in early voting states Feb. 7.
Earlier on Friday in Ohio, the state's attorney general Mike DeWine announced he was withdrawing his support for Romney in favor Santorum.
Reporters questioned Romney about the news after his Boise event.
As staffers urged the governor to move along, Romney smiled at reporters and walked away.

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Rick Santorum: Will women vote for him?

(Reported by www.politico.com  )
Democrats have an unexpected new foil in their effort to label the GOP as hostile to women: Rick Santorum.
After hammering away for a year at the message that Republicans are indifferent to women’s health and economic well-being, President Barack Obama’s party has been handed a nearly perfect political punching bag in the former Pennsylvania senator, whose down-the-line cultural conservatism is a major selling point in the 2012 primaries.

Gender issues have taken center stage in recent days as Santorum has made incendiary comments suggesting women not be allowed to serve in combat roles in the military (he later said he was concerned men would want to protect them). Santorum has also stood by his opposition to contraception, reiterating his position that it shouldn’t be covered by the national health-care law because it is “inexpensive.” While the ex-senator doesn’t favor outlawing birth control, he is personally opposed to it.

In another major hit this week, Santorum’s most prominent financial backer, Wyoming financier Foster Friess, joked on television that back in the day, women — he called them “gals” — would practice contraception by holding aspirin “between their knees.”
The timing of these flare-ups is politically dangerous for Santorum, as Republicans on Capitol Hill this week held an all-male hearing on birth control and the controversy is just starting to fade over the Obama administration’s health-care ruling on contraception and religious groups.
These issues may work in the ex-senator’s favor in the Republican presidential primary. But to longtime Democratic women operatives, Santorum’s rise in the presidential race represents the return of an old rival — a 1990s-era culture warrior whose political comeback is as shocking as it is inadvertently useful for the Democratic cause.
“He constantly says things that are offensive to women,” said Kim Gandy, former president of the National Organization for Women. “Regardless of whether Republican women like some of his policies, I think they’re going to be so turned off by his judgmental stand on the independence and essential rights of women that they won’t be able to vote for him.”
“The idea that a man who opposes something as widespread as the use of birth control would even be taken seriously as a candidate, would be shocking to me,” Gandy said. “He makes Romney look like a liberal by comparison — but only by comparison. At least Mitt Romney hasn’t said women shouldn’t use birth control.”
Already one of his party’s most ardent abortion rights foes, Santorum, in his 2005 book “It Takes a Family,” advocated an old-school role for women in the home and accused “radical feminists” of undermining families by telling women “professional accomplishments are the key to happiness.” Santorum says his wife authored that section.
Thus far in the presidential race, Santorum hasn’t anchored his campaign message in gender-related issues — or really, in social issues more generally. He has emphasized his cultural traditionalism as a way of drawing contrasts with Romney, but the main thrust of the Republican’s sales pitch is his adherence to small-government conservatism and his pledge to revive the manufacturing sector of the economy.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73050.html#ixzz1moF5VKEA

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