Santorum Struggles to Win Voters' Hearts
2006-10-05
Source: Los Angeles Times
email this
print this
del.icio.us
digg this
rss feedRick Santorum has spent 12 years in the Senate -- and millions of dollars on TV ads for a third term. Yet a lot of Pennsylvania voters just plain don't like him.
Polls show Santorum's approval rating is in the 30s, just about what it was a year ago. Roughly the same number of voters view him unfavorably as favorably.
Questions over the use of Pennsylvania tax dollars to pay for the cyber schooling of his six children in Virginia continue to dog him. Anger lingers over comments he made in a book last year criticizing some working parents, as well as statements he made in opposition to same-sex marriage and in support of keeping Terri Schiavo alive.
"Santorum's real problem is Santorum," said Clay Richards, a Quinnipiac University pollster.
A confident politician with youthful good looks, Santorum is banking on his reputation as a hard worker who brings home the federal dollars, and the clout he has as the No. 3 Senate Republican. Pennsylvania is a Democratic-leaning state, and working for votes is nothing new to him.
He frequently boasts that with him, you at least know where he stands on issues.
Some GOP candidates are distancing themselves from President Bush, but Santorum said he's not. "Just because the president is down in the polls, I'm not someone who is going to walk away from him," he said.
Click here to see the full article.
