Santorum Heads to Iowa

Move over Sarah Plain, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum is doing Iowa this fall and it has nothing to do with harvesting corn.

Long time associate John Brabender confirmed that the former two term senator from the Keystone State will do a succession of events that will involve conservatives that are active in the caucus procedure.

The Hawkeye State holds the first in the nation caucuses roughly three years from now, last cycle former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee walked away with the prize, only to eventually lose the primary process to Sen. John McCain by the time the Florida primaries rolled around.

Santorum lost in to Sen. Robert Casey in 2006 during the mid-term slaughter handed to the GOP largely due to then President Bush’s policies in Iraq and his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"One of the reasons he lost was because he refused to budge on his conservative values," Brabender said about that hostile year for Republicans.
Since 2006 Santorum has kept a high profile, he is a constant commentator on Fox News in his role as a contributor, he has been made a permanent guest host every Friday for the Bill Bennett Radio Show which is syndicated on over 400 radio stations and he pens a bi-monthly column for the Philly Inquirer.

Speaking as he was heading home in Pittsburgh, a point of contention in the 2006 election when a democratic activist laid claim that Santorum rarely lived at his Pittsburgh residence, Santorum said his visits to Iowa are just good old-fashioned getting around the country and talking to folks.

"It gets more attention because it is Iowa, but I am also doing events in North Carolina and other states as well," Santorum said.

Santorum says of a possible running in the GOP primary, "It is not something that i would not do, but it is not something that am planning to do, it is just way too early."

University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato says this early in the process you don’t rule out anybody who hasn’t ruled himself out, like South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford or U.S. Sen. John Ensign, both knee deep in spouse cheating scandals.

"Iowa is tailor-made for someone like Santorum since the caucuses are heavily populated with conservative Christians who will love Santorum’s views on all the social issues," Sabato said, but he warns that can also be the problem as Mike Huckabee proved in 2008 and Pat Robertson showed in 1988.

So, doing well in Iowa doesn’t necessarily mean much on the GOP side as it does for the Democrats — remember the gnashing of the teeth when Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic caucuses.