Santorum backers step up pressure on Gingrich

Rick Santorum

/ AP Photo/Eric Gay

Updated 12:45 p.m. ET

The outside group backing Rick Santorum for president is stepping up its efforts to force former House speaker Newt Gingrich to give up his bid for the presidency.

The Red White and Blue fund, the super PAC backing the former Pennsylvania senator, said Thursday it was spending more than half a million dollars in Alabama and Mississippi to run television and radio ads aimed at helping Santorum. Gingrich has said Alabama and Mississippi are must wins, as he has bet his entire candidacy on winning Southern states to build momentum for his campaign.

Gingrich has repeatedly said he is not dropping out. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is leading the delegate count, with 391 of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination, according to estimates compiled by CBS News. Santorum is in second place with 140, while Gingrich is in third place with 95 delegates.

"On the heels of our call for Newt Gingrich to unite conservatives by exiting the race, now we are investing heavily in the next two primary states to ensure that happens with a Santorum victory," said Stuart Roy, an adviser to the super PAC.

"Then voters will be able to have a choice between an authentic conservative in Santorum and a calculated conservative in Mitt Romney," Roy said. The fund called for Gingrich to drop out on Wednesday after spending about $800,000 helping Santorum finish in a close second place in Ohio on Tuesday.

Santorum, for his part, is letting others do his dirty work.

"I'm not saying I don't want him to get out. if he wants to get out, I'm all for him getting out. I'm for Mitt Romney getting out. I wish President Obama would just hand me the thing, but that's not going to happen," Santorum told reporters in Kansas Wednesday.

Top Santorum strategist John Brabender had earlier said that Santorum would win the nomination if conservatives could rally around one candidate to take on front-runner Mitt Romney.

While Gingrich and Santorum have been fighting for votes from the conservative wing of the party, it is not clear how many Gingrich backers would switch to Santorum. Some might not vote at all and Romney could be expected to get some portion of those voters.

Watch the ad here:

[retlash]

In my 60 years of watching the nomination process, I have not witnessed such a deplorable travesty and tragedy as this year's
circus of comic losers representing the Republican party. In a country of 300 million, how is it possible to have the likes of such mediocre people as Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich as a pick of the litter?! American Republicans ...you can do better than that. If you can't, then Obama is a shoe-in. And, frankly, that would be the best for America. So, just keep on truckin', Republicans...and continue to put the country in the hands of Obama.

[venusvegasvada]

+1

[2happy2ride]

You have actually been awake the last three years?? We're heading for a Greecian bankruptcy in case you wake up wondering what happened.

[NewtsArmy931]

Santorum is the GOP's "Jimmy Carter" candidate!Vote for Newt!

[thebob-bob]

I love democracy! Let Mitt wither, let Newt bluster, bring on Santorum's true believers and then put it to The Test. Obama wins by a landslide, America rejects a bible-based Christianist government and we all come together and fix the mess that the radical anti-Government Republicans have made over the last 30 years.

Let's end the radical rightwing War on America!

[commentingnow]

Santorum serves a very useful purpose. By watching the results in states like OK and TN, I can figure out which states I would never want to live in...and which I would try to avoid passing through. It's a shock to see how popular he is with GOP voters in those two states. We can't blame it on teachers, either. At a certain point, people need to use their brains and learn to think.

[Marchesa-Ann]

Gingrich should not drop out of the race. There are still many states to campaign in and he could win some of those states. Santorum wants to win the nomination badly believing he could win the presidency. I doubt it. The voters don't see Gingrich as the candidate to beat Obama and I blame that on the voters. Gingrich has the most experience in politics to run this country and would bring America back to where it was. The voters of 2008 better wake up and not make the same mistake that they are now crying about.

[satin_lingerie]

Republicans are hopeless with either one of these mutts.

[NoelFreedman]

With all the trash sassing, and character assignations between these 4 candidates running to run this country, I cannot imagine how any of the three losers (sic) will have the gall to endorse the winner.

[NoelFreedman]

With all the trash sassing, and character assignations between these 4 candidates running to run this country, I cannot imagine how any of the three losers (sic) will have the gall to endorse the winner.

[2happy2ride]

Santorum is a typical politician. He'll say & do anything to get votes, even employ the democratic party like he did in MI. The man who touts his faith the loudest, has been the person who has complained the most and takes every opportunity to put down others rather than explain his experience & assets.
He talks about being raised in a steel town while NEVER having actually worked a blue collar job, EVER. The hypocrisy is startling.