Santorum not getting warm welcome home

Rick Santorum, the Republican presidential candidate and devout Christian, looks to be playing the prodigal son when his campaign rolls through Pennsylvania for the April 24 primary. So far, his GOP brethren are not crazy about welcoming him home.

Not a single major statewide Republican leader in Pennsylvania has endorsed him. Not Gov. Corbett nor Sen. Pat Toomey. The state party chairman is sitting it out. None of the five candidates vying to take on Democrat Bob Casey for Santorum's old Senate seat is pushing for him.

Not even his friend Rep. Tim Murphy (R., Pa.), who is fighting a primary battle to hold on to Santorum's former Western Pennsylvania congressional seat, is announcing an endorsement in the GOP presidential race. Nor is Murphy's tea party-aligned challenger in the 18th District, Evan Feinberg.

Ryan Shafik, a Republican strategist in Harrisburg and former Santorum intern, said: "All of these Republican officials basically sucked up to Rick Santorum when he was in power. Now that he's out of power and he's a liability, they don't want anything to do with him. It's that simple. They all say it privately but won't say it publicly."

Santorum was atop the Pennsylvania GOP ticket in 2006 when he lost his Senate seat by 18 points and the party lost its majority in the state congressional delegation and the state House. In 2010, it won back the governor's mansion, the Senate seat now held by Toomey, and the House, and many Republican operatives are in no mood to relive the upheaval of six years ago.

Santorum's allies say he has changed since then and has mastered a new message that should appeal to a wide swath of voters, even if the party establishment is not on board.

"Rick is a brand now, a full-spectrum conservative," said Republican former State Rep. Jeff Coleman, a Harrisburg strategist. "He has erased the pro-family, fiscal-conservative divide and welded something unique. . . . It's a big deal, and the party has tried to do it for a long time."

"It would be a mistake for Republican leaders not to embrace him as a favorite son," Coleman said.

The last Allentown Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll of Pennsylvania, taken Feb. 15 to 21, found that nearly two-thirds of state Republican voters surveyed liked Santorum, to 40 percent for Mitt Romney. But they said neither candidate would beat President Obama in November.

The state's GOP leaders have remained noncommittal. Corbett said recently that he was "not willing to share" whom he was supporting in the presidential race. Toomey has also been sitting it out, though he did praise Romney's tax-cut proposal.

Corbett is a client of top Santorum consultant John Brabender, as is the party's endorsed U.S. Senate candidate, Steve Welch. Welch, a Chester County businessman, said he was not endorsing in the presidential race either. "Either one of them will be better than Mr. Obama," he said recently.

Fellow Senate candidates David Christian, Sam Rohrer, and Tom Smith are not endorsing, and neither is Marc Scaringi, a former Santorum aide. At campaign events, Scaringi has distanced himself from his former boss on legislation such as No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D, and on Santorum's 2004 endorsement of moderate Republican Arlen Specter.

Santorum's only major endorsements in the state have been from Republican Reps. Lou Barletta and Tom Marino and from a group of 15 state senators led by President pro tempore Joe Scarnati and Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman.

When asked about the lack of endorsements, Corman, a state director for Santorum in the 1990s, said: "When you're endorsing someone, you get half their friends and all their enemies." He noted that Santorum had come this far in the campaign without many major endorsements, ceding the GOP establishment to front-runner Romney.

Pennsylvania remains a fluid swing state in the presidential campaign, and while state Republican leaders are fascinated by Santorum's return to the national stage - and his former home - they're wary of what he would bring come November.

"It's remarkable, to have been out of office after an 18-point defeat and not have a high profile, to be still in the race," said Jim Roddey, the GOP chairman in Allegheny County. But "his ideas are too far from the center. To get back in the White House requires independent voters and Democrats disenfranchised by Obama. We're more likely to get them with Romney."

at 412-263-1581 or tmcnulty@post-gazette.com.