The battle for South Carolina is under way. Here are the 10 things you need to know today.
- Newt Gingrich on Meet the Press; Stephen Colbert on This Week: Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will be on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” ABC’s This Week will have Stephen Colbert, who announced this week he was exploring a presidential bid, as well as Rick Perry. Gov. Rick Perry will also be on guest on CNN’s State of the Union.
- Gingrich and Santorum on CBS’ Face the Nation, Santorum on Fox News Sunday: Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum will discuss the primary as well as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). The show starts at 10:30 a.m. ET. Santorum will be guest on Fox News Sunday, as well Rick Tyler, the senior adviser of pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future.
- South Carolina’s biggest paper endorses Huntsman: Like the Boston Globe, which endorsed Huntsman as well, the paper narrowed the field to two “sensible” candidates – Romney and Huntsman – but then chose Huntsman as “more principled, has a far more impressive resume and offers a significantly more important message.”
- Religious right rallies around Santorum: A group of social conservative leaders and organizations met in Texas this weekend and decided to throw their support around Rick Santorum as their “anti-Romney.” Attendees included Tony Perkins (Family Research Council), James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Donald Wildmon (American Family Association), and Gary Bauer (American Values).
- Gingrich spins social conservative Santorum endorsement as anti-Romney vote: After over 150 religious conservatives decided to support Rick Santorum over the weekend, Newt Gingrich decided to spin that news into part of his campaign narrative. In a statement from one of Gingrich’s surrogates, the campaign promoted the idea that Santorum and Gingrich had both received the blessing of the evangelicals.
- Restore Our Future goes after Santorum: The pro-Romney super PAC has a direct-mail campaign against Rick Santorum in South Carolina, painting Santorum as a big spender who “will defend earmarks.” It’s worth taking a look at the mailing, via CNN’s Peter Hamby.
- Pro-Gingrich PAC hits Romney on Bain and health care in new ads: Two ads went on air in South Carolina this weekend, tying “Romneycare” to health care reform as well as attacking him for his record at Bain Capital. The ads were paid for by the pro-Gingrich PAC Winning Our Future.
- SC voters turned off by Romney’s time at Bain: Priorities USA Action, the progressive super PAC backing Obama, has released a research memo on perceptions of Bain and Romney in South Carolina. For Romney, who’s staked his candidacy on his business experience, the results are not good. 53% of South Carolina Republican primary voters “expressed major doubts” when told about the layoffs that resulted from Bain’s activities. Overall, Wall Street investment firms were viewed negatively.
- Gingrich supports firing federal workers who are too liberal: Newt Gingrich drew fire in December for suggesting judges could be impeached. In a similarly bold move, on Saturday’s Fox News Forum, Gingrich pushed another theory for firing people over their beliefs. This violates federal law, but if Gingrich sticks to his guns, we may be discussing this new policy of his for a few days.
- Candidates campaign in South Carolina Sunday: The candidates have a fairly light schedule Sunday. Most are in South Carolina.
