The TicketRick Santorum says he’s raised more money in the past few days than in the last four months
ALTOONA, Iowa--If you judged Rick Santorum solely by his campaign's financial records, you'd never guess that he was near the top of the polls in Iowa, the former senator from Pennsylvania said Monday.
Wrapping his last town hall in the state, Santorum made a final pitch to Iowa voters here, promising that no matter how he ranks in Tuesday's first-in-the-nation caucuses, he'll continue with the same grassroots strategy in the next state primary to keep his candidacy alive.
"We're not going to run a big campaign," Santorum told voters at a Pizza Ranch restaurant, where an overflow crowd required him to give two separate speeches in the same venue. "We're not going to hire a bunch of experts and staff. We're going to run the campaign that keeps continuing to interact with voters that is accessible and accountable. We're going to do our best to be lean and mean and set an example that you can win the presidency that way and you can govern the country that way."
Before a few recent polls showed him beginning to rise in the polls in Iowa, Santorum often struggled to get people to show up for his appearances; his campaign reported some of the lowest fundraising numbers of all the candidates running for the 2012 Republican nomination for president.
"When we report our financial picture it's going to be embarrassing," Santorum said. "Except for the fact that in the last four or five days we've raised more money than in the last three or four months."
His campaign is planning to spend the recent influx to blanket New Hampshire with ads in advance of the state's primary next week, he said. Santorum did not predict victory there (he's near the bottom of the latest polls from New Hampshire), but he expressed a confidence that not long ago would have been laughable.
"We can compete there," he said. "We think we can do well."
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