Santorum: If I'm not the nominee, Republicans should vote for Obama

Talk about it

When Rick Santorum campaigns in Wisconsin this weekend, don’t be surprised if he brings his Etch-a-Sketch toy with him. He’s been using it to attack comments by one of Mitt Romney’s advisers, who said “everything changes” for Romney’s fall campaign – and it’s like shaking an Etch-a-Sketch and starting all over again. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, said it’s more proof that Romney will say anything to get elected. And at an appearance in Texas, Santorum that if he’s not the nominee, Republicans may as well vote for Obama. It was his way of saying the former Massachusetts governor is not conservative enough to give voters a clear choice – and only Santorum can offer that choice. Otherwise, Santorum said quote, “We may as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk of what may be the Etch-a-Sketch candidate for the future.” Romney said he was disappointed that Santorum would rather have Barack Obama as president a Republican. Newt Gingrich tweeted that any G-O-P nominee would be better than Obama. Santorum is scheduled to make five appearances tomorrow and Sunday between Racine and Green Bay, in advance of the April third Wisconsin primary. Romney and Gingrich are due in next week.

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You probably know that Wisconsin’s presidential primary is 11 days away. But do you know who you’re going to vote for? Probably not, says Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner. The Menomonee Falls Republican says the state’s political insiders – as well as the rest of us – are fixated on the recall battle against Governor Scott Walker and the State Capitol policies that led up to it. Sensenbrenner says it’s unfortunate that people have not grabbed a hold of the G-O-P presidential contest yet – and lots of Wisconsin voters remain undecided. State Republican Party vice-chair Brian Schimming says the recall situation is quote, “sucking all the political air out of the room,” not only for the White House contest but for the five-way U-S Senate Republican primary on August 14th. Meanwhile, the White House hopefuls are about to make some noise as they get ready to visit Wisconsin. Rick Santorum has five appearances planned tomorrow and Sunday between Racine and Green Bay. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are due in next week. The A-P’s delegate count gives Romney about half of what he needs to secure the Republican nomination, with about twice as many delegates as second-place Santorum. Gingrich and Ron Paul are a distant third and fourth. Recent polls give Santorum a lead over Romney, but the biggest of the independent polls – the one from Marquette University – has not issued an update in about a month.

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State Senate G-O-P leader Scott Fitzgerald says there’s quote, “not a chance” that he’ll call lawmakers back into session to re-draw the new legislative district boundaries his party created last year. But Democrats say Republicans are obligated to re-open the matter, after a federal court ordered the Legislature yesterday to re-draw two Assembly districts in Milwaukee. A three-judge panel said the G-O-P majority violated the federal Voting Rights Act, by hurting the rights of Hispanics to elect at least one of their members to the Assembly. The court did not set a deadline for making the changes. But the Journal Sentinel says the new districts must be set by April 15th, when candidates for the fall elections can start taking out nomination papers. If lawmakers don’t re-draw the two Assembly districts in question, officials said the federal court might have to. The court kept the other 97 Assembly districts and all 33 Senate districts as the G-O-P drafted them. And Attorney General J-B Van Hollen said that “vindicated” his fellow Republicans. Van Hollen and Republicans highlighted the result but said little about the court’s condemnation of the process they used. The judges called it quote, “needlessly secret, regrettably excluding input from the overwhelming majority of Wisconsin citizens.” The court said the maps quote, “needlessly moved more than a million Wisconsinites and disrupted their long-standing political relationships.” But technically, the court agreed that the G-O-P’s lines met the constitutional requirement of having nearly equal populations for each district.

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