U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, who's been criticized for holding fund-raisers in Florida around the time he went
to visit Terri Schiavo's parents, received $84,000 from those events, according to an analysis of his campaign report.
The analysis, however, probably doesn't capture all the money raised at the four events because they were
held near the reporting deadline. Santorum's campaign estimated he raised more than $200,000 on the trip.
The breakdown of Santorum's fund-raising activities comes as a new poll shows him losing ground to Democrat
Bob Casey Jr. The Quinnipiac University poll, in which Casey leads Santorum 49 percent to 35 percent, suggests Santorum's
involvement in the Schiavo case is hurting his bid for a third term in 2006.
The poll found that 34 percent of Pennsylvania voters were less likely to vote for Santorum because of his
highly visible role in helping her family wage a legal battle to have Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted. Only 14 percent said
his actions made them more likely to support him while 47 percent said it made no difference.
Santorum, ... an outspoken advocate for conservative values, pushed legislation giving Schiavo's parents,
Bob and Mary Schindler, the right to appeal their daughter's case to the federal courts...
Santorum attended fund-raisers in Orlando and Miami on March 29 before going to talk and pray with the Schindlers
that evening at Schiavo's hospice near St. Petersburg.
The Orlando lunch raised $25,000, while the Miami dinner brought in about $42,000, according to PoliticalMoneyLine,
a nonpartisan Web site that tracks campaign donations and expenditures.
The following day, Santorum raised another $16,000 at two fund-raisers.
Santorum recorded the donations on March 31, the day Schiavo, 41, died.
Democrats have sharply criticized Santorum for going to the fund-raisers while another event he was scheduled
to attend — a town hall meeting in Tampa on Social Security — was postponed.
Organizers of the town hall said the delay was done out of respect for Schiavo's family and fear that it
might be disrupted by protesters.
State Rep. T.J. Rooney, D-Northampton, and the state Democratic chairman, said that if Santorum wanted to
show respect to the Schiavo family, ''he should return the political money he raised while hypocritically grandstanding at
Terri Schiavo's deathbed''...
Casey, the state treasurer who entered the race in March, is making gains on Santorum, according to the
Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday.
Casey's 14-point lead over Santorum was an improvement over a similar poll in February showing him up 46
percent to 41 percent.
Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, attributed the difference
to the Schiavo case and Santorum's advocacy for Social Security private accounts.
The poll found 55 percent of state voters oppose the accounts and 38 percent said they were less likely
to vote for Santorum because of his support for them. Only 15 percent said they were more likely to back him; 43 percent said
it made no difference.
Santorum's approval rating has also fallen below 50 percent — always a danger for an incumbent but
not an insurmountable one given that the November 2006 election is more than 19 months away.
''In short, Santorum has become a more controversial public figure in the past two months and Bob Casey,
without doing much of anything to attract headlines, is the beneficiary,'' Richards said.
The telephone poll, conducted April 13-18 with 1,395 Pennsylvania voters, had a margin of error of 2.6 percentage
points.
Unpopular Stands, Senator's views on Schiavo and Social Security are costing him political
ground
U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum has built a political career on his reputation for speaking out on controversial
issues. But a new poll suggests he might want to be less outspoken if he wants to be re-elected.
His high-profile role in the Terri Schiavo case and his peddling of President Bush's Social Security
plan is proving unpopular with many Pennsylvanians and helping to widen state Treasurer Bob Casey Jr.'s early lead in the
2006 U.S. Senate race.
While saying little since announcing his campaign against Santorum last month, Casey's lead has
grown to 49 percent to 35 percent, according to the poll of 1,395 Pennsylvania voters last week.
"I've got a lot of work to do, and I understand that," Santorum said yesterday.
The poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, which has a margin of error of 2.6 percentage
points, also shows 53 percent of Pennsylvanians disapprove of the job Bush is doing and that 55 percent reject his plan to
add private investment accounts to Social Security.
The results energized Democrats, who "smell blood," said Clay Richards, assistant director of
the polling institute. Democrats have made it no secret that Santorum is their top target in next year's election.
Casey leads Santorum everywhere but in central Pennsylvania, where Santorum has a 46 percent
to 40 percent edge.
Casey is also running stronger among Democrats than he did in February, when Santorum was pulling
17 percent of Democrats' support. Santorum's Democratic support dropped to 10 percent.
"This is obviously not good news for Rick Santorum," said Phil Singer, spokesman for the Democratic
Senatorial Campaign Committee.
But the campaigns and independent experts cautioned against reading too much into the results
19 months before the first vote is cast.
"Quite frankly, I think it's a little bit silly to try and do polling this far out," said John
Brabender, Santorum's media guru who said Santorum's only polling has been on issues.
He predicted "horse-race" polls that track the matchup won't become useful until after Labor
Day 2006.
That's when voters begin to focus, the candidates have been canvassing the state and the campaigns
mount what is expected to be one of the most expensive ad wars in the country's premier Senate race.
Marc Farinella, Casey's interim campaign manager, agreed.
"There'll be lots of days of good news and lots of days of not-so-good news," he said.
Republicans note that Casey has not detailed his positions on federal issues and that voters'
opinions might shift as they learn of his views.
While the poll is not an accurate predictor of the election outcome, campaign and polling experts
said, it shows vulnerabilities for Santorum...
His approval rating has dropped to 48 percent from 52 percent in February as he championed Bush's
Social Security plan and was a leader in the unsuccessful congressional intervention to keep Schiavo on a feeding tube. Santorum
also showed up outside the Florida hospice where Schiavo was dying and met with her father...
Santorum has been criticized for moderating his positions, voting to cut money for Amtrak and
other programs important to Pennsylvania, and for sponsoring bills and holding news conferences with Democrats, including
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., to appear less conservative.
He has also faced continued criticism for the $100,000 cost to Pennsylvania taxpayers for enrolling
his children in a cyberschool even though they live in Virginia.
"There's got to be a bit of unease in the discussions that are taking place among Senator Santorum's
advisers," said Chris Borrick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.
But Santorum is tough campaigner who will have every GOP resource available, including help from
Bush, and few people count him out.
"He's a fighting underdog, who is fighting for what he believes is morally right. If you're an
underdog, that's a strong position," Richards said.
Staff writer Jan Murphy contributed to this report.
