Have you received a phone call from Rick Santorum in the past few days? If you’re a Michigan Democrats, odds are you did.
The former Pennsylvania Senator sent out automated robocalls throughout the state to Democrats, urging them to show up to the polls on Tuesday to vote for him, not Mitt Romney. In an effort to appeal to “Reagan Democrats,” the call served as a reminder that Democrats are eligible to vote in the Michigan primary and stated, “Romney supported bailouts for his Wall Street billionaire buddies, but opposed the auto bailouts. That was a slap in the face to every Michigan worker, and we’re not going to let Romney get away with it.”
Forget the messy business that Santorum himself ALSO opposed the auto bailout. The call script conveniently forgets to mention that tidbit.
But why waste precious campaign funds appealing to Democrats who will likely not vote for Santorum in the general election? The campaign thinks they can sway Michigan Democrats away from the Obama machine.
“We know that if we can get a Reagan Democrat in the primary, we can get them in the fall,” said Santorum campaign communications director Hogan Gidley.
If recent polling from the American Research Group is to be believed, it’s not such a far off statement. Among self-identified Michigan Democrats, Santorum is the favorite, capturing 34 percent of those polled. Maybe Santorum’s strategy isn’t far off base.
Romney, long considered to be the favorite to win today’s Michigan contest, doesn’t approve of his opponent’s last minute tactics.
“It’s a dirty trick. It’s outrageous to see Rick Santorum team up with the Obama people and go out after the union labor in Detroit to try to get them to vote against me. Look, we don’t want Democrats deciding who our nominee’s going to be, we want Republicans deciding who our nominees are going to be,” Romney said on Fox & Friends earlier this morning.
The Santorum campaign is defending the calls, stating they need to court Independents and Democrats. “We can attract voters we need to win states like Michigan,” Santorum said earlier today at a Grand Rapids diner. He urged the Romney campaign to do the same.
But will it make a difference in the votes today?
Joe Disano, a Michigan Democratic political consultant behind another ad asking for Democrats to get out the vote for Santorum, seems to think so.
“I do think this is going to make a difference. Roughly 200,000 people will vote today. This thing is neck and neck and if I can get these people to vote for Rick Santorum I think we can defeat Mitt Romney. He is so weak here the fact a religious fanatic like Rick Santorum can even come close shows how weak Mitt Romney is in his home state.”
It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of Santorum, but the Santorum campaign needs all the help they can get. Michigan is a virtual deadlock, so every vote will help.
Whether the robocall will give Santorum the edge he needs remains to be seen. Most Michigan polls close at 8:00pm EST tonight, so keep an eye out for the results.
