On Monday, Rick Santorum’s campaign began making robo calls to Democratic voters in Michigan, urging them to vote for Santorum in the GOP’s open primary Tuesday. Santorum defended the tactic on Tuesday, saying it was important to reach out to Democrats and that he was invoking a positive message about the economy. But on Janauary 29, 2012, on a tele-conference call with voters in Minnesota, Santorum decried the idea of Democrats voting in a Republican primary. Via CNN:
“We want the activists of the party, the people who make up the backbone of the Republican Party to have a say in who our nominee is as opposed to a bunch of people who don’t even identify themselves as Republicans picking our nominee,” Santorum said. “I believe that states should only allow Republicans to vote in Republican primaries.”
Santorum continued, “It’s the Republican nomination, not the independent nomination or the Democratic nomination,” Santorum stressed. “If you’re a Democrat and you want to be a Democrat, then vote in the Democratic primary, not the Republican. If you want to vote in the Republican Party then become one.”
