Santorum strikes gold in Pa. contributions

Pennsylvanians gave nearly $260,000 to Rick Santorum's presidential campaign in January, nearly quadrupling his home-state cash haul from the previous month.

The sum exceeds last month's Pennsylvania fund-raising totals for all of his Republican rivals as well as President Obama, according to campaign-finance filings released this week.

And it also pales in comparison to the nearly $700,000 those with Pennsylvania ties gave in January to the political action committee backing Santorum's run for the White House.

Much of the new support came from central and western parts of the state - Santorum's home turf. But several top donors - such as Richard Devine, a mechanical contractor from King of Prussia, and conservative activists Colin and Anne Hanna of West Chester - hail from the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Joseph Hartman, a 33-year-old software consultant from Media, and his wife, Julia, donated a combined $3,000 to Santorum's campaign after attending a Jan. 31 fund-raiser.

"I had never listened to him before," Hartman said Tuesday. "We were just impressed by his stress on family values."

Coming on the heels of his strong showing in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, Santorum's fund-raising numbers suggest the former Pennsylvania senator may have attracted a second look from Republicans here after months of trailing in money and polls. And since the totals go only through Jan. 31, they don't include checks that arrived after his more recent primary wins.

"He's clearly performing on a much better level here than many people thought he would," said Chris Borick, a pollster and political scientist at Muhlenberg College.

A recent statewide survey of 500 GOP voters found the former senator in a dead heat here with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The Pennsylvania poll echoed findings among voters preparing for Tuesday's primaries in Michigan and Arizona.

"There was always an element of the Republican Party here that never warmed up to" Santorum, said Jim Lee, president of Susquehanna Polling & Research, which conducted the survey between Feb. 2 and 6. "But as the field narrows, a lot of Republicans are wondering, 'Where do we go?' "