Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said he’s the true conservative voice of the Republican Party. The former Pennsylvania senator staged a rally at the downtown armory in Janesville last night, and says that contrary to his opponent Mitt Romney, he’s a conservative all the time. “Governor Romney, when the Etch a Sketch comment came out, said that he would run as a conservative in the fall,” he said. “I’m not going to run as a conservative, I am a conservative, period.”
AUDIO: Rick Santorum (1:00)
Even though Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich will both visit Wisconsin this week, Rick Santorum said he’s the only one other viable candidate in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. And while Mitt Romney has recently given different positions on health care, Santorum said the people of Wisconsin are still paying for Romney’s past mistakes. “They exploded the Medicaid budget, so you in fact here in Wisconsin are paying for health care in Massachusetts. You are paying for Romneycare,” said Santorum. And those mistakes Santorum said, raise a significant question for Wisconsin voters, in that Romney is “uniquely disqualified to make the argument” against Obamacare. Wisconsin’s presidential primary is next Tuesday, April 3rd.
Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich is dramatically scaling back his Republican presidential campaign. The former House speaker has laid off one-third of his staff. And he dismissed campaign manager Michael Krull, a college friend of Gingrich’s wife Callista who’s from Whitehall in western Wisconsin. Gingrich told reporters in Maryland that his campaign money is getting tight as he languishes in a distant third place in the GOP delegate count. But the Gingrich camp promised to keep fighting, saying he would limit his travel to key states and focus more on digital media to get his message out. A poll released Tuesday by the Marquette Law School showed Gingrich a distant fourth in Wisconsin, with only 5 percent support. Romney led Santorum 39-to-31 percent in the state poll, with Ron Paul third at 11 percent.
Jon Meerdink, WCLO
