What makes Rick Santorum’s triple-win Tuesday night so impressive is his sheer lack of resources. Of course, that’s also what makes his ability to sustain that momentum questionable.
When it comes to battling Mitt Romney for frontrunner status, Santorum is vastly outmatched. Santorum raised $2.2 million in all of 2011, an amount he then doubled after his win in Iowa. Still, that’s nothing to the over $50 million Romney raised in 2011, not to mention the millions raked in by his Super PAC. If Romney really feels threatened, his well-heeled supporters can unleash a torrent of negative ads that can overwhelm a candidate. Newt Gingrich learned this the hard way in both Iowa and Florida.
The Romney campaign now has the month of February to attack Rick Santorum before Super Tuesday, and Santorum will have few resources with which to fight back. Romney’s campaign is already painting Santorum as a Washington insider and earmarker. Santorum’s successes in Iowa and on Tuesday suggest that he does best when Romney and Gingrich go at each other and Santorum is left to stick to a positive message. He won’t have that luxury now that team Romney is focusing on him.
Santorum will also fight an uphill battle to maintain momentum during Super Tuesday on March 6, the next big contest. Santorum has done well in smaller states where he can spend time on the ground. But Super Tuesday means you need to deploy more resources like TV ads and direct mailings because you can’t be in all of these states at once. Santorum will spend the next few days in Texas and Oklahoma, likely trying to build up an organization and raise money in those states.
In the immediate future, however, last night’s wins give Santorum a serious boost. They should ensure that Santorum stays in the race longer and allow him to claim he has replaced Newt Gingrich as the anti-Romney for the more conservative and religious GOP voters. In terms of a drawn out battle over delegates, Santorum is in second place but still well behind Romney with an estimated 45 delegates to his 107, according to the Associated Press.
