Candidates spar before key Miss., Ala. primaries

Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial can­di­date, for­mer Penn­syl­va­nia Sen. Rick San­to­rum talks with sup­port­ers dur­ing a stop at Sweet Pep­pers Deli, Sun­day in Tupelo, Miss. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

BETH FOUHY, PHILIP ELLIOTT

Asso­ci­ated Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial hope­ful Rick San­to­rum on Sun­day nudged rival Newt Gin­grich to step aside, argu­ing a head-to-head con­test between him­self and Mitt Rom­ney should “occur sooner rather than later.” A defi­ant Gin­grich pre­dicted vic­to­ries in Tuesday’s pri­maries in Alabama and Mis­sis­sippi and called Rom­ney the weak­est Repub­li­can front-runner in nearly a century.

San­to­rum and Gin­grich were cam­paign­ing hard two days before what has become a poten­tially deci­sive South­ern show­down for the GOP field.

Los­ing Alabama and Mis­sis­sippi would effec­tively spell the end for Gin­grich, who has banked his wan­ing prospects on an all-Southern strat­egy. The for­mer House speaker’s lone pri­mary wins have been in South Car­olina and Geor­gia, a state he rep­re­sented in Con­gress for 20 years.

A win for Rom­ney in Alabama, where polling shows a tight con­test between Rom­ney, Gin­grich and San­to­rum, could all but bring the GOP nom­i­nat­ing con­test to a close. The for­mer Mass­a­chu­setts gov­er­nor has built a sub­stan­tial del­e­gate lead against his rivals but has failed so far to win a state in the deep South, home to the Repub­li­can Party’s most con­ser­v­a­tive voters.

San­to­rum, who has bat­tled to be Romney’s chief con­ser­v­a­tive foe, bur­nished his stand­ing with a deci­sive win in Saturday’s cau­cuses in Kansas. The for­mer Penn­syl­va­nia sen­a­tor also car­ried con­tests last week in Okla­homa and Ten­nessee, giv­ing him a toe­hold in the South.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” San­to­rum said Gingrich’s recent stretch of weak show­ings sug­gests he has few options left in the race. Gin­grich placed third in Kansas and dead last in Wyoming, whose cau­cuses Rom­ney won eas­ily Saturday.

“The speaker can stay in as long as he wants, but I think the bet­ter oppor­tu­nity to make sure that we nom­i­nate a con­ser­v­a­tive is to give us an oppor­tu­nity to go head-to-head with Gov. Rom­ney at some point and hope­fully that will occur sooner rather than later,” San­to­rum said, adding he wasn’t directly ask­ing Gin­grich to get out.

San­to­rum attended church in Tupelo, Miss., Sun­day morn­ing and had cam­paign stops sched­uled in Merid­ian and Gulf­port later in the day. Gin­grich was also cam­paign­ing in Mis­sis­sippi, where he planned to attend Bap­tist church ser­vices in Bran­don and head­line a rally there.

The Gin­grich cam­paign also deployed a “truth squad” across Mis­sis­sippi, led by Bob Walker, a lob­by­ist and for­mer House col­league now chair­ing Gingrich’s campaign.

On “Fox News Sun­day,” Gin­grich com­pared Rom­ney to Leonard Wood, a U.S. Army gen­eral from New Hamp­shire who ran for the Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion in 1920 but lost on the tenth bal­lot to War­ren Harding.

“He’s not a very strong front-runner,” Gin­grich said of Rom­ney. “Almost all con­ser­v­a­tives are opposed, which is the base of the party. And I think we are likely to see after the last pri­mary in June, we’re likely to see a 60-day con­ver­sa­tion about what’s going to hap­pen.” In August Repub­li­cans head to their national con­ven­tion in Tampa, Fla.

Gin­grich also took aim at San­to­rum, say­ing his sup­port for ear­marks and other spend­ing projects while in Con­gress had alien­ated vot­ers from the Repub­li­can party in 2006. Repub­li­cans lost both the House and Sen­ate that year, and San­to­rum lost re-election to the Sen­ate by an 18-point margin.

“This is some­body who on a num­ber of occa­sions had Wash­ing­ton change him — he admits it and he says it’s a team sport. You had to go along to get along,” Gin­grich said of Santorum.

Rom­ney had no cam­paign appear­ances Sun­day, but his cam­paign and an allied inde­pen­dent group were far out­pac­ing his rivals on the air.

The Rom­ney cam­paign boosted its tele­vi­sion ad spend­ing from $165,000 to $233,000 in Alabama. Restore Our Future, a super PAC run by for­mer Rom­ney advis­ers, was spend­ing $1.42 mil­lion on ads in Alabama and $973,000 in Mississippi.

Rom­ney planned to cam­paign in Alabama Monday.

Gin­grich and San­to­rum also had sup­port on the air by well-heeled out­side groups.

The Gin­grich cam­paign was run­ning about $125,000 in ads in Alabama and $83,000 in Mis­sis­sippi, while the pro-Gingrich super PAC Win­ning Our Future was spend­ing $413,000 on ads in Alabama and $250,000 in Mississippi.

San­to­rum had only a nom­i­nal pres­ence on the air in both states. But the Red White and Blue fund, his allied super PAC, was spend­ing $275,000 on ads in Alabama and $235,000 in Mississippi.

Wins in the U.S. ter­ri­to­ries Guam, the Vir­gin Islands and the North­ern Mar­i­ana Islands along with Wyoming helped Rom­ney sig­nif­i­cantly pad his del­e­gate lead in the race. The Asso­ci­ated Press cal­cu­lates that Rom­ney now has 454 del­e­gates com­pared with 217 for San­to­rum, 107 for Gin­grich and 47 for Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

A can­di­date must win 1,144 del­e­gates to clinch the Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion at the national convention.

Posted by AP News on Mar 11 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.