Pro-Santorum Super PAC skips N.H. ad buys
The insurgent campaign of Rick Santorum will be on its own in the Granite State. The Super PAC working to boost his candidacy - the Red White and Blue Fund - will not be spending any money to help Santorum in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire presidential primary.
But the PAC is on the airwaves in South Carolina, where Republicans vote in two weeks.
The Red White and Blue Fund spent $525,000 on television ads in Iowa, according to expenditure disclosures to the Federal Election Commission, helping fuel Santorum's drive to a very close second place in the Iowa caucuses.
Santorum, a former Congressman and Senator from Pennsylvania, lost by only eight votes out of 122,000 to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, whose victory was abetted by more than $3 million in TV ads by the pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future - mostly negative ads that attacked the record of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and helped drive down his support.
The pro-Santorum Super PAC will not be on the air in New Hampshire, Red White and Blue Fund spokesman Stuart Roy confirmed to CBS News on Friday. But Roy said the Super PAC has already committed $200,000 to buying TV time in the Palmetto State's three largest media markets (Greenville, Charleston and Columbia) for their new 30-second ad, "Pride" (see below)
The pro-Ron Paul Super PAC, Revolution PAC, has committed "six figures" to play a 60-second video (previously posted to its website) mostly on cable TV stations and during local commercial breaks in Saturday's debate on ABC affiliate WMUR.
The pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future so far is not on television in New Hampshire, but it has bought full-page newspaper ads in the state's largest circulating newspaper, the Manchester Union Leader (which endorsed Gingrich), alleging similarities between Gingrich's views on certain issues and those of President Barack Obama.
The newspapers ads will also be published in The State in Columbia, S.C., where Restore Our Future has already spent $300,000 on TV ad time, according to spokeswoman Brittany Gross.
The pro-Santorum Super PAC registered with the FEC in October, but did not spend any money until the last two weeks of December, and it has not previously needed to disclose its donors. But its end-of-year report (along with that of every other pro-candidate Super PAC) will be due in January - after the N.H. and S.C. primaries have already been fought.