Santorum stokes GOP divisions in run-up to Illinois primary

MOLINE, Ill. - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has not run what you'd call an outreach campaign in this state for Tuesday's primary. He is hoping out loud that voters will sort themselves into conservatives versus moderates, urbanites versus rural residents, and produce an outcome that shows he and his campaign reflect the true heart of the GOP.

Illinois will send 69 delegates to the Republican convention in August, and 54 are being chosen in the primary. With Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul largely absent from the state, the contest has turned into a faceoff between Santorum and front-runner Mitt Romney.

Santorum sees opportunity in the southern and western areas of this blue state, the regions far from the urban and suburban enclaves of Chicagoland. He has forfeited 10 delegates up front by failing to get his allies onto some ballots, and polls show him 4 to 15 percent points behind Romney, but even a loss could help Santorum. If he outdraws Romney among fervent conservatives and rural voters, it will give him more fodder for his argument that Romney is out of touch with the base of his party and the heartland of the country.

The former Pennsylvania senator constantly berates President Obama for trying to divide the country. But he seems to have no problem setting up an us-versus-them proposition within his own party.

"I don't know what's going to happen in the general election but I do know this: the people of Illinois have an opportunity in this primary to really send shockwaves through the establishment moderate Republicans who have been pushing with their billionaire dollars a...moderate governor from Massachusetts who goes out and says I'm not the conservative," Santorum told a few hundred voters in an airport hangar in Mt. Vernon, five hours south of Chicago.

If you multiply your numbers by 10, Santorum told the crowd, "Southern Illinois can speak very loudly."

Everywhere he goes - such as a trip to President Reagan's hometown of Dixon, Ill., on Monday - Santorum praises the values of small town America, where "everyone looked out for each other." "You here in Illinois, you don't get a chance very often to speak loudly as conservatives in Illinois. But you can in this race," Santorum added later in Moline, 166 miles west of Chicago on the Mississippi River.

Santorum stoked the moderate-conservative division even in Arlington Heights, a Chicago suburb, as he arrived in the state Friday night. "You can make up for all of that frustration. You can make up for all of the slights by the leaders of this party here in Illinois. You can go out and win us this race!" he told 1,000 people in a high school gym there.

Santorum has specifically mocked Romney for seeking out the urban areas of the state, for instance in Mt. Vernon as he set up an attack against the health law Romney signed while governor of Massachusetts. "If Gov. Romney decides to come down here in down state of Illinois, instead of spending his time in the Chicagoland area...and if he deigns to allow a question to be asked, which would be a first, ask him why he doesn't talk about Obamacare?" Santorum asked.

Santorum has ramped up and expanded his attacks against Romney, from insisting Romney can't articulate the values of those who want to repeal "Obamacare" to portraying him Monday as a "Wall Street financier" who stuck up for his buddies in finance rather than for the people on America's Main Streets. The attack brought the race full circle back to early January, when Romney was being tarred by Gingrich as a "predatory capitalist" and by Rick Perry as a "vulture capitalist."

[BOB-C]

I'm bored.

[antoniof123]

This is the dirtiest nastiest race I have ever seen in fact by the time they finish with Paul Ryan going at it there should be nothing left of them.

If this wasn't real it would make for a great laugh.

[dman6015]

I see Slick Rick is still using his "divide and lose" approach. Except now he's trying to divide his own party. Good luck in November, GOP, with this turkey hanging around. He'll probably demand that he be made the VP candidate.

[LeighOats]

Says dman6015 ("March 20, 2012 1:45 PM EDT") about Rick Santorum: "He'll probably demand that he be made the VP candidate."

Hey, everybody, let's banish any thought of asking him to name the capital city of Africa.

[cntrygirl3]

Why does it surprise anyone that Santorum turns right around and does the very thing he is castigating his opponents for doing. Of course it is "different" when he does it. This idiot may be the darling of the far right religious republican base, but the republican base vote does not win elections. He has alienated everyone that is not a hard core religious social conservative, most of the women in the country and all of the independents. I have no idea if Romney can beat Obama or not but it is for certain Santorum can't. So what is it going to be republicans, had you rather be "right" than president?

[BlameRepublicanz]

Santorum for Ayatollah of the Christian Taliban in 2012!

[Paul_I]

Santorum wants an America where everyone looks out for each other... except for people who does not think and believe the way he does.

[boatdocster]

The Party of Religious Hate is in the House. Ricky would take us back to the days of the Spanish Inquisition!

[MsmCorrupt]

According to the media in Chicago Santorum already won.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hdGJaGbLj5E

[martykz-2009]

Barack Obama - The Cure for the Common Conservative.

[harv823]

Whover wins the Republican nomination, I see an extremely low voting turnout by them in the next election. I don't see many Tea Party members voting for any of the 4 leading GOP candidates, all born in Pennsylvania or Michigan and none are protestants.