Former Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty released a statement Monday attacking Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum leading up to Tuesday’s Minnesota Republican caucuses.
The former governor dropped out of the Republican race in August after a poor showing in the Iowa Ames Straw poll and shortly thereafter he endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Now, with a day remaining until the Minnesota Republican caucuses and Mr. Santorum leading Mr. Romney in a recent poll of Minnesota voters, Mr. Pawlenty is hoping his popularity in Minnesota will help sway voters to select his candidate Mr. Romney.
Following his huge win in the Nevada Republican caucuses, Mr. Romney’s campaign staff released several attacks against Mr. Santorum, seemingly a response to Sunday’s Public Polling Policy poll that showed the former Pennsylvania senator leading Mr. Romney among voters in Minnesota.
One of those attacks consisted of comments from Mr. Pawlenty regarding Mr. Santorum’s record as a Pennsylvania senator. The former Minnesota governor calls Mr. Santorum a “nice guy,” but attacks his record as having called for too many earmarks.
“Rick Santorum is a nice guy, but he is simply not ready to be President,” said Mr. Pawlenty in a statement. “As a U.S. Senator, he was a leading earmarker and pork-barrel spender. He described himself as ‘very proud’ of the billions of dollars in pork-barrel projects he championed, and promised to defend the wasteful spending.”
The comments from Mr. Pawlenty are similar to those launched at Mr. Santorum by Texas Governor Rick Perry in the week leading up to the Iowa Republican caucuses. Mr. Santorum emerged as a serious contender in Iowa with just a week remaining until their caucuses. Until that time, all the attacks from Mr. Perry were aimed at the front-running Mr. Romney.
However, as Mr. Santorum surged in polls, Mr. Perry released an ad attacking Mr. Santorum as an “earmark king” and the champion of a “bridge to nowhere,” which Mr. Pawlenty also commented on.
“Even in the face of crushing federal debt, Rick Santorum voted for the infamous ‘Bridge to Nowhere.’ That type of leadership will not help us rein in government and slash the unprecedented federal debt,” said Mr. Santorum.
The “bridge to nowhere” that Mr. Pawlenty refers to is the Gravina Island Bridge in Alaska, a bridge that would have connected Ketchikan, Alaska airport with Gravina Island. The earmark for the bridge was removed in 2005 by Congress. Mr. Santorum defended his vote for the earmark during an interview with the Des Moines Register in early January.
“People say that I voted for ‘The Bridge to Nowhere.’ I did. I went with the federalist argument, which is, ‘Who am I in Pennsylvania to tell Alaska what their highway priorities should be?’ You had a city that was separated from its airport, and of course in Alaska you have to travel by air, and you had to have a ferry. There were times when they couldn’t get across,” said Mr. Santorum.
Mr. Romney’s campaign also released a statement from Factcheck.org on Sunday about Mr. Santorum’s claim that he implemented a “top down government run healthcare system” while he was the governor of Massachusetts.
The series of attacks against Mr. Santorum including the comments from Mr. Pawlenty clearly shows that Mr. Romney’s campaign is focusing on preventing the former Pennsylvania senator from winning the Minnesota Republican caucuses on Tuesday.
The former Pennsylvania senator plans on making several stops in Minnesota and Colorado on Monday. The Minnesota and Colorado caucuses will occur on the same day as the Missouri Republican primary election.
