It seems obvious at this point that Rick Santorum’s decision to launch a robo-call encouraging Democratic cross-over voting in today’s Republican primary has backfired.
Michigan Republican Party Chairman Bobby Schostak said: “Sadly, because of (Michigan’s) elevated role, there are reports that several organizations are now attempting to undermine Tuesday’s election results. The malicious intent by these organizations to confuse voters, dilute the election results and undermine the primary process is wrong, and in contrast to our values.”
He did not mention Santorum, and obviously was referring mostly to the UAW and fringe left-wingers like Michael Moore and Markos Moulitsas, but the disdain for the anything-goes approach by Santorum is certainly implied.
On MSNBC, Bill Ballenger, the dean of Michigan political analysts, said the robo-calls were a “dirty trick” because they sounded like a plea from the UAW, for “we” union members to play mischief in the GOP primary.
The Santorum camp, in yet another weak attempt at spin, claims that the ad is an attempt to gain votes from Reagan Democrats. Oh, really? If that’s the case, why did Santorum not make an appeal to Reagan Democrats – such as they are – in his two campaign appearances in Macomb County?
Clearly, Santorum is willing to do just about anything to win today’s primary. But Romney’s hands are not clean either.
While Romney calls the Santorum tactic “disgusting,” it was reported today that he crossed over in the 1992 Democratic presidential primary and voted for Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas to slow the momentum of Bill Clinton.
At the time, Romney was a registered independent and now he claims his individual vote bears no comparison to Santorum’s campaign advertising urging sabotage in the GOP primary.
Nonetheless, here is Romney’s quote this morning at his Michigan campaign headquarters: “We want this to be a process where Republicans choose our Republican nominee. We don’t want the Democrats to choose who they think is the easiest person to run against.”
