After victories, Santorum has more work to do

Rick Santorum said it all as he looked out Tuesday night at the cheering crowd and the press riser full of cameras at his victory party in St. Charles, Mo.: "Wow!"

The former Pennsylvania senator swept the Republican presidential nominating contests in Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado - the breakthrough moment that gives him an audition to go on as the chief conservative rival to front-runner Mitt Romney.

"We definitely are the campaign right now with the momentum, the enthusiasm on the ground," Santorum said Wednesday in Texas, where he spent the day campaigning.

On one level, the results brought a touch of chaos into the GOP race, but on another, it was a return to the familiar story line: the struggle of conservatives in the party's base to overcome their misgivings about Romney and get in line, or instead to settle on a viable alternative and take Romney down.

Now, strategists and analysts said, Santorum has to broaden his coalition and dramatically increase his fund-raising to prove he is a viable long-term challenger who can match Romney's well-financed, well-organized campaign.

Santorum said Wednesday that he had raised $250,000 overnight online, and he told CNN that the Republican campaign to pick the party's challenger to President Obama was heading into "no-man's-land."

The results of Maine's weeklong caucuses are to be announced Saturday, but Santorum will have the benefit of a lull in voting until Feb. 28, when Arizona and Michigan hold primaries - time in which to raise money and regroup without the possibility of a momentum-killing loss.

The next debate

On the other hand, except for a nationally televised candidates' debate Feb. 22 in Mesa, Ariz., Santorum may largely be out of the headlines while Romney also recharges. On Friday, both candidates along with rival Newt Gingrich are scheduled to address the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. Santorum has also arranged fund-raising events this weekend in California, and will follow with campaigning in Washington state, then Ohio and Michigan.

So far, Santorum is at least the fifth surging candidate to try to become the anti-Romney; all before him have faded under scrutiny. The latest was Gingrich, who won the South Carolina primary Jan. 21 only to be crushed by Romney in Florida 10 days later. Gingrich did not contest the three states that voted Tuesday, and did not even qualify to be on the Missouri ballot.