Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul launched his latest attack ad on former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Rick Santorum Tuesday, criticizing a number policies supported by the Pennsylvania Republican, and labeling him a fake fiscal conservative who voted to send “tax dollars” to Kim Jong-il.
The Texas congressman has been critical of Mr. Santorum’s claims of being a “fiscal conservative” throughout the Republican primary race.
The latest ad seems to echo the criticism that Texas Governor Rick Perry used against Mr. Santorum while he was still in the race. During Mr. Santorum’s last minute surge prior to the Iowa caucuses, Mr. Perry called him the “earmark king,” for voting for a number earmarks while still a member of the U.S. Senate.
“Not groovy,” says the ad. “Is Rick Santorum a fiscal conservative?”
Mr. Santorum has also been critical of Mr. Paul, mainly calling his foreign policy into question. The Texas Republican favors a drastic reduction to the U.S. military presence abroad, which he claims will greatly reduce federal spending and help balance the federal budget.
The ad comes as polls show Mr. Santorum’s lead in Michigan waning, while nationally the Pennsylvania Republican now leads Mitt Romney, his main Republican rival, by double-digits.
The ad brings up some details of Mr. Santorum’s earmark voting that have not been discussed previously in ads released by Mr. Paul or any of the other candidates against Mr. Santorum.
It alleges that while in the Senate, Mr. Santorum helped to double the size of the U.S. Department of Education, and also voted to send foreign aid to Kim Jong-il, the late dictator of North Korea.
“His voting record is, I think from my viewpoint, an atrocious voting record – how liberal he’s been in all the things he’s voted for over the many years he was in the Senate and in the House,” Mr. Paul said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Mr. Santorum has become known as the socially conservative option to rival candidate Mitt Romney, whose front-runner status in the race is in serious jeopardy with the recent surge by Mr. Santorum.
Mr. Paul has been extremely critical of that notion that Mr. Santorum is the most conservative candidate remaining in the race, specifically because of his voting record.
The former Pennsylvania senator recently came out and defended his voting record, stating that at the time he felt that his votes were warranted.
His rivals have been highly critical of his vote in favor of Alaska’s “bridge to nowhere,” in 2005 which would have put over $300 million in federal funding towards a bridge connecting Ketchikan, Alaska with Gravina Island, which contains the Ketchikan International Airport.
On Sunday, the Texas Republican specifically cited Mr. Santorum’s recent comments regarding the Obama administration’s contraception controversy, in which the White House amended a rule that would have required religious institutions to pay for contraception coverage.
While Mr. Santorum clarified his position on Friday, saying he believes “birth control can and should be available,” the candidate was an outspoken critic of the contraception policy as being a form of government “coercion.”
“It’s not about contraception. It’s about government control of our lives and it’s got to stop,” Mr. Santorum said during a February 10th speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Mr. Paul, however, argued that the candidates, including Santorum, were focused on the wrong issues.
“This whole idea about that talking about the social issues and who is going to pay for birth control pills, I’m worried about undermining our civil liberties, the constant wars going on, the debt of $16 trillion,” said Mr. Paul. “They are worried about birth control pills and here he wants to control people’s social lives.”
It will be interesting to see if the ad can sway any of Mr. Santorum’s supporters towards favoring Mr. Paul. That seems unlikely though, as Mr. Paul typically draws interest from libertarian leaning conservatives and independent voters, which is why his two most successful primary election finishes came in New Hampshire and Maine.
Recent polls of voters in the upcoming primary states of Michigan, Arizona, and Washington all show Mr. Paul trailing Mr. Santorum by a wide margin.
