ALTOONA, Iowa –Rick Santorum fired back at Gov. Rick Perry’s charge that he was unelectable, saying he got elected in the swing state of Pennsylvania while Perry got elected in the much more conservative Texas.
With Santorum surging in the polls and now having a good chance to win the state, he’s finding himself under attack from rivals.
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“He got beat by 18 points in his last race,” Perry said of Santorum, according to a CBS News report. “This guy has proven that he can’t win races when it matters against a liberal Democrat.”
At an appearance at a Pizza Ranch – his fifth and final event of the day, and third event at one of the pizza buffet chains – Santorum responded to the line of attack that even if he wins in Iowa, he won’t be able to compete nationally.
“One of the candidates today said, ‘Oh, he’s unelectable, he can’t win,” Santorum said. “Well, let me just say this. Show me any other candidate in this race who has ever won a state that we have to win in order to win the presidency. None of them.”
Santorum was elected Senator of Pennsylvania in 1994 and reelected in 2000, but got routed by 18 points to Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in 2006, a year in which Republicans lost both chambers of Congress.
While not mentioning names, he said that the other members of Congress in the GOP presidential race – Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex., and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., — won in heavily Republican districts.
Then, in reference to Perry, he said, “we have a Republican governor of Texas who won as a conservative. How hard’s that?”
Though Santorum acknowledged that Mitt Romney won in a blue state, he said he didn’t do it as a conservative.
“We have a governor of Massachusetts who won as a liberal,” Santorum said. “Both for the Senate and lost and for the governorship and won, and didn’t run for reelection. Why? Look at his poll numbers.”
Santorum argued to run for reelection and lose was the more valiant decision than Romney’s who didn’t seek reelection in 2006, and instead ran for president staring in early 2007, after his single term expired.
“My poll numbers were not much better (than Romney’s), but I stood and I fought,” he said. “If you want somebody who is always looking for what the next political opportunity is, then you don’t want a president like Rick Santorum. Because I’m going to stand up and fight for what I believe in, whether the political winds are for you, or the political winds are against you.”
