KALAMAZOO, MI — Even Rick Santorum’s supporters are surprised he’s robocalling Democrats and trying to boost the crossover primary vote Tuesday. But the pair I talked to were divided over whether Santorum was playing fair with the calls. Team Romney, meanwhile, is thrilled — a Romney backer who shadowed Santorum in Michigna Monday told me that the calls are going to go over like a lead baloon with Republican voters.
Santorum addressed an overflow crowd at a Christian school here Monday, his last event of a full day in Michigan and his first since news broke that his campaign is robocalling Democrats and telling them to cast a vote against Romney by taking advantage of the state’s open primary and pulling the lever for Santorum.
The campaign says they’re trying to reach “Reagan Democrats” with the calls, which one observer told TPM were a “dirty trick” in the lead-up to the Feb 28 primary. I talked to a couple of Santorum supporters about the robocalls after the event. Both were surprised when I told them about the calls, but they had different reactions to the news.
“It would be different if it were Obama calling saying, ‘vote for Ron Paul’ because they know he didn’t have a chance,” said Philip Gestwicki of Kalamazoo. “Now that would be swinging it.”
“That would be dirty, but that’s a totally different story,” he continued when I asked if Santorum’s calls gave him pause. “But [Santorum] calling up and saying ‘yeah, vote for me’? No, not at all.”
David Scranton, another local, was not so sure.
“I’d call it in the gray zone,” he said. “But if they’re saying who it is — and I don’t think they’re disgusing who it is — I think it’s alright.”
“I kinda like [Santorum] a little, bit so I’m a little bit biased,” he continued. “Maybe you should ask somebody that doesn’t like him at all.”
As chance would have it, that oppurtunity presented itself very quickly. Saul Anuzis, former Michigan GOP chair and Romney backer, had shown up at Santorum’s Lansing and Kalamazoo appearances to stand in the back and “bracket” Santorum’s events. He said the calls were going to be a big problem for Santorum.
“Republicans believe Republicans ought to nominate their candidate,” Anuzis said. “The idea of blatantly encouraging Democrats to vote for you [in a the primary] is going to backfire with Republicans.”
