Forceful Santorum Fends Off Romney Attacks

Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum faced a series of attacks on his congressional voting record as rivals Mitt Romney and Ron Paul targeted him during a debate in Arizona.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, said Santorum voted to raise the debt ceiling five times while he served as a U.S. lawmaker from Pennsylvania and took “a whole series of votes” that added to federal spending. Paul called Santorum “a fake” for claiming to be a fiscal conservative.

Santorum, elevated to front-runner status in recent national polls of the Republican race, was under attack tonight as his rivals worked to stem his momentum.

Romney hammered Santorum for voting for a costly Alaska road project that came to symbolize the earmarking process in Congress used by lawmakers to funnel tax dollars to pet programs.

Santorum said that Romney had asked for earmarks himself as governor and when he ran the Salt Lake City, Utah, Olympics in 2002.

“While I was fighting to save the Olympics, you were fighting to save the bridge to nowhere,” Romney shot back, referring to the Alaska project.

Santorum also said Romney failed to understand the dynamics in Congress at the time.
Misrepresenting Facts

“You’re misrepresenting the facts. You don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Santorum.

The sparring between the two leading candidates in the field demonstrated how the race’s dynamics changed in recent weeks. Since the last debate nearly a month ago in Florida, victories by Santorum in Feb. 7 votes in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri led to a surge of support for him in the polls.

Santorum, 53, a former U.S. senator and House member from Pennsylvania, has spent recent days pitching himself to voters as an anti-establishment fighter for fiscal and social conservatism. Romney, 64, a private equity executive before he entered politics, has tarred his challenger as a Washington insider and sought to focus the race on economic issues.

The most recent statewide polls show Romney leading in Arizona and running neck and neck with Santorum in Michigan (BEESMI), Romney’s birthplace. Both states hold primaries on Feb. 28.
Likely Voters

An NBC/Marist survey of likely voters in Michigan’s Republican primary released today shows the two in a virtual tie: Romney has 37 percent support and Santorum 35 percent, with the margin of error plus-or-minus 3.7 points.

In Arizona, a similar NBC/Marist poll released today shows Romney 16 points ahead of Santorum, 43 percent to 27 percent. The margin of error is plus-or-minus 3.5 points. Both polls were conducted Feb. 19-20

Tonight’s debate -- which also included former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 68 -- is the last direct exchange among the candidates scheduled before Super Tuesday on March 6, when 11 states hold contests that should play a major role in determining who secures the Republican nomination.

During the event, sponsored by CNN and the Arizona Republican Party, Paul called Santorum “a fake,” standing by a television advertisement his campaign is running charging that his rival isn’t a real fiscal conservative.
No Child Left Behind

Santorum voted for former President George W. Bush’s signature education overhaul, known as No Child Left Behind, and is now running for president saying he’d repeal it, Paul said.

“This idea of being fiscally conservative now that we’re running for office, and we’re going to repeal something that we did before -- it loses credibility,” said Paul, 76.

Santorum responded that the Weekly Standard, a conservative-oriented magazine, rated him “the most fiscally conservative senator in the Congress” during the 12 years he served in that chamber.

He called himself a “hero” on tough issues, including proposing changes to entitlement programs, a politically risky stance in Pennsylvania that has the nation’s second-highest concentration of senior citizens.

“We had a strong record in a tough state to be a conservative,” Santorum said.

While Santorum has often steered the political conversation toward social issues such as his opposition to abortion and gay marriage, Romney has tried to focus on the economy. Earlier today, he released a more detailed tax plan, calling for a 20 percent across-the-board cut in individual income tax rates.
Lowering Top Rate

Romney’s proposal would lower the top tax rate to 28 percent for individuals from 35 percent now, cut corporate taxes to 25 percent from 35 percent, eliminate the estate tax and scrap the alternative minimum tax. It also would limit the deductions, exemptions and credits that are now available to higher-income Americans.

“We are going to cut back on that so we make sure the top 1 percent keeps paying, paying the current share they’re paying or more,” Romney told a campaign rally before the debate in Chandler, Arizona. “We want middle-income Americans to be the place we focus our help, because it’s middle-income Americans that have been hurt by this Obama economy,” Romney told a campaign rally in Chandler, Arizona.

The campaign hasn’t specified how deductions and other tax breaks for high-income taxpayers would be limited. The top tax rates on capital gains and dividends would remain at 15 percent.
‘Top 1 Percent’

Santorum said Romney, in laying out his plan, “even today suggested raising taxes on the top 1 percent, adopting the Occupy Wall Street rhetoric. I’m not going to adopt that rhetoric. I’m going to represent 100 percent of Americans. We’re not raising taxes on anybody.”
Romney called Santorum’s comment a “misrepresentation.”

Santorum said earlier today that Romney was seeking to cut taxes to levels he has already proposed.

“Welcome to the party, governor, it’s great to have you along,” Santorum said at a rally in Tucson, Arizona, sponsored by Tea Party activists who seek to limit government’s size and scope.

Romney’s announcement came as President Barack Obama called for cutting the U.S. corporate tax rate to 28 percent. Obama’s plan would remove tax breaks for companies to help offset lost revenue and make other structural changes to the tax code, including limits on the deductibility of interest.

Tonight’s debate was the 20th in the Republican race. The previous one was held on Jan 26 in Jacksonville, Florida. Romney then won Florida’s Jan. 31 primary by 14 points over Gingrich, with Santorum running a distant third.