Romney campaign pulls ad due to Bella Santorum's hospitalization

AP Photo

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has pulled a new television ad that attacks Rick Santorum because his ailing daughter remains in the hospital.

"We have done this out of deference to Sen. Santorum's decision to suspend his campaign for personal family reasons," Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.

Santorum's 3-year-old daughter Bella, who suffers from the genetic disorder Trisomy 18, was hospitalized on Friday. While Santorum canceled all campaign-related activities Monday to be with his daughter, spokesman Hogan Gidley said the candidate will be back on the trail in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Gidley told MSNBC Bella has had a "miraculous" turnaround.

"The family hopes to take her home a little bit later on today if she gets the all-clear from the doctors," Gidley said.

The Romney ad, "Historic," hits the former Pennsylvania senator for losing his 2006 re-election campaign. "We fired him as senator. Why promote him to president?" asks the narrator.

The campaign asked television stations across the state to pull the ad this morning, the earliest they could contact the stations because of the holiday weekend. However, according Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group, the spot did air early this morning on at least one station, KYW in Philadelphia. The ad will be replaced with a positive spot, named "Conservative Record."

According to the Pittsburg Tribune-Review, the former Massachusetts governor's campaign spent $2.9 million on the state-wide ad buy. The Romney campaign is hoping that a Santorum loss in his home state primary, slated for April 24, would hasten the end of the Republican nomination fight. A recent Quinnipiac poll gave Santorum a six point edge in the state.

Full coverage: Campaign 2012

[oregongramma]

That was a hunk of money to spend on an ad, could have seen better ways to improve quality of life for many with it.... also when did our candidates stop being gentlemen? Maybe a new approach might work- be respectful....

[lloydbest1]

Pure theatrics on both people's parts. Romney knows his nomination is all but assured, so attack ads would not only not help his cause but at this point may well hurt it.

Rick Santorum only has a few years left (at most) to have his daughter. Quit now and think about 2016.

[cbsakenes]

Our news media really gets locked into narratives and isn't very good at connecting the dots. If Santorum is no threat to Romney, then Romney would not have made a multi-million ad buy running as attacking Santorum in Pennsylvania. He'd just run positive ads or ads attacking Obama. So it is obvious that Romney is worried about Santorum winning Pennsylvania because he knows it is still a realistic possibility that he could come up short of the majority of delegates if Santorum gets any momentum.

[Phxfire]

Nice move, Gov. Romney, regardless of your motives. Mr. Santorum needs to exist the race and behave as he 'preaches'...put your family first. We do not need nor will the Constitution allow a Theocracy based government. Preserve and protect the Constitution.

[Ourdoc1]

"the former Massachusetts governor's campaign spent $2.9 million on the state-wide ad buy"

Thats another State he is "buying"....

[1notrub11]

You mean, as opposed to the Democrats buying advertising?

[stevex47]

Hope the little kid makes a miraculous complete recovery !

[jsf14]

Hope sick kids whose folks get kicked off health insurance make miraculous recoveries.

[robert1129]

Very classy....

[Paul_I]

Romney is a businessman. Why spend money on an ad attacking an also-ran when that money could be better used in the election? Having made the business decision, why not get some further mileage out of the move by attributing an altruistic motive to it? Pure marketing genius.

[ProgressNow]

cut-n-runnnnnnnnnnnnn.....

[rightontarget]

Well, I feel bad for the little girl and hope she gets better. That being said, I still think Sanctamonious Santorum needs to go get himself a church if he wants to "preach" and stay the heck out of our government! No "pitty me" vote for Santorum and no "ah what a good guy" vote for Romney either. Both are just NOT presidential material.