Rick Santorum’s campaign seems on the alert for dirty tricks in South Carolina.
Hogan Gidley, national spokesman and ex-executive director of the South Carolna Republican party, says he’s seen evidence of “dirty politics” in the ads from Romney superPACs and has heard “rumblings” abut misleading robocallls and direct mail wih false information. “Romney tried to do the same thing here in 2008 to Huckabee,” for whom Gidley worked that year, he said. But he said he doesn’t yet have specifics to cite.
Santorum himself seems to take the same view. Upon entering a coffee shop with his wife to tape a Cafe Moms interview with Frank Luntz before a packed audience, Santorum told reporters, “Governor Romney has taken the approach of trying to tear down folks with a record more conservative than his.”
Negative campaigning often rebounds against the campaigner. Newt Gingrich may already be hurting from a response to the pro-Gingrich superPAC film, widely panned as inaccurate, attacking Romney’s investments at Bain. Now Santorum is trying to discredit Romney in a similar way. Let’s see if he takes up that theme in the debate tonight.
