Romney Issues New Strikes On Santorum

(NewsCore) - In a sign that Rick Santorum may pose a potential threat to Mitt Romney in some upcoming primary contests, the former Massachusetts governor's campaign went on the offensive against the former Pennsylvania senator Monday.

A Romney campaign press release distributed Sunday attacked Santorum as a "proud defender of earmarks and pork-barrel spending."

The campaign followed that critique on Monday with a conference call featuring Romney campaign co-chair and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. In a statement that preceded the call, Pawlenty said Santorum "was a leading earmarker and pork-barrel spender."

Another Romney release slammed Santorum for what it called his "false attacks on Massachusetts health care."

Santorum finished last in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, but has expressed confidence that he will draw more support in three contests scheduled for Tuesday in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri.

During an interview on "FOX News Sunday," Santorum predicted he would do "very well" in both Minnesota and Colorado, and "exceptionally well" in Missouri, where former House Speaker Newt Gingrich failed to qualify for the ballot. "I think we're going to show that this race is moving again in a very different direction," he added.

Recent polls support Santorum's optimism, and Romney's offensive indicates his campaign is taking the threat seriously.

According to Public Policy Polling, Santorum currently holds a small edge over Romney in Minnesota and was also leading Romney in Missouri as recently as last weekend. In Colorado, however, Santorum is running a distant second to Romney.

Overall, PPP said Santorum "has a decent chance at wins in Minnesota and Missouri, and a second place finish in Colorado."

The renewed attention on Santorum comes after Romney's campaign had directed most of its recent fire at Gingrich -- who won the South Carolina primary and finished second in Florida and Nevada.

Neither of the three states will directly award delegates based on Tuesday's vote and Missouri's primary is considered simply a "beauty contest," because the state is scheduled to hold a second vote during caucuses on March 17.

According to the Republican National Committee, which released an updated tally Monday, Romney currently has 73 delegates, Gingrich has 29, Texas Rep. Ron Paul has eight and Santorum has three delegates. There are currently 30 unbound delegates, including 28 from the Iowa caucuses, which Santorum won in a narrow upset victory on Jan. 3.

Santorum, for his part, launched a barrage of criticism at Romney during an address billed as a "major health care speech" in Minnesota on Monday. He argued that similarities between Romney's health care overhaul in Massachusetts and President Barack Obama's health care reform disqualifies the former governor from being the Republican nominee.

"The problem is that we have a candidate who is running, who is now seen by the media as the prohibitive favorite, who is the worst possible person in this field to put up on this most fundamental issue of this campaign and this is Governor Romney," Santorum said during the speech in Rochester, Minn.

"Governor Romney is simply dead wrong on the most important issue of the day and should not be the nominee of our party," he added.