Romney, Santorum in Mich. blue-collar vote battle

TROY, Mich. — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is playing up his Michigan roots just days ahead of the state’s crucial primary. But the native son faces a serious challenge from an outsider who’s connecting on much more personal level with this hardscrabble state’s conservative blue-collar voters: Rick Santorum.

Romney was born and raised in Michigan, the son of an auto executive who in the 1960s became a popular three-term governor. But his affluent upbringing, and a business career so successful he needed Swiss and Caribbean bank accounts to shelter his fortune, are making it difficult for Romney to overcome high expectations that he should dominate Tuesday’s primary.