Santorum talks faith, Super Tuesday and strategy
Times have changed for Rick Santorum since he was driving around Iowa's 99 counties in a pickup truck at the start of the new year.
The former Pennsylvania senator — who was simply trying to stay in the GOP presidential primary race — has had a windfall of sorts, adding to his surprise Iowa victory a strong Super Tuesday showing and this week's sweep of the Deep South.
Now Santorum is close on the heels of front-runner Mitt Romney in Illinois, a race the former Massachusetts governor had seemingly all but sewn up months ago.
After a rally at Christian Liberty Academy Friday, the Carmel Catholic High School alum sat down with the Daily Herald to talk about what he's not even thinking about yet — the possibility of sharing a ticket with Romney — as well as his mindset looking toward next Tuesday and beyond.
Q. How does your strategy in the Chicago suburbs differ from the rest of the state, where you're expected to pick up some big votes downstate and in central Illinois?
A. Obviously it's a tougher area. You have folks here in the Chicagoland area, there is a bit more of a moderate brand of Republicanism here than are downstate. That doesn't mean there aren't conservatives here, and there aren't people who aren't conservatives who maybe just decided to give up the ghost if you will, because of the inability for them to contest an election here, who may be able to turn out and turn out big numbers in the primary and help us win.
Q. We broke a story about Mitt Romney's Illinois campaign withdrawing petition challenges to your delegates, a move that could have helped them clinch things here. Do you feel in a way that move gave you a pass of sorts and helped you with your delegate count here?
A. My understanding is that in the past because it has been so Byzantine to get on the ballot in Illinois, candidates don't file petition challenges. We were told if we make a good faith efforts, everybody sort of understands. You treat people in good faith. I think the representatives of the Romney and Paul campaigns, as well as representatives of our campaigns, who were tossing petition challenges around, said let's hold our fire and let's seek a primary where people have an opportunity to get on and not play games, to try to keep people from being hurt.
Q. At this point in the game you have about half the number of delegates as Gov. Romney (438 to 239 according to the latest estimate) ...
A. That's not necessarily accurate. Gov. Romney has overinflated numbers and I think our numbers are underestimated. He's not going to get (all the delegates) in Florida, he's not going to get (all of) them in Arizona. Both of those states have been given to him as winner take all, and neither of them will be. This race is a lot more open than the cursory delegate counts go. There's a lot to happen here and we're a long way from a decision on this race.
Q. So you're not thinking about a ticket with him? A. I'm not thinking about a ticket with anybody.
Q. Growing up, your brother Dan told us earlier this year, your family was Catholic, but not nearly as devout as you are now. Can you talk about a particular experience or when that faith really started growing?
A. When I got married and started having kids. I sensed a sharpening to what is important in life. Faith was always a part of my life. But really until I met my wife and once we started walking that journey together, I definitely elevated the importance of it in my life, and once you become a father and you're responsible for their being raised, you have a different appreciation of what's important.
Q. Will you be back in Illinois on election night?
A. I don't know where we're going to be on election night. Super Tuesday we stayed in one state, but a lot of the times, we hop to the next state.