John Brabender

Robert P. Casey Jr.'s campaign criticized U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum yesterday for making "insensitive" remarks about last week's hurricane victims when he suggested in a television interview that people who ignore evacuation warnings should face tough penalties. But in an interview yesterday, Santorum said his comments, which aired Sunday on WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, were not aimed at those who could not escape the hurricane. And an aide to the Pennsylvania Republican criticized Casey for raising the issue in an e-mail that included a link to donate to the Democrat's campaign to unseat Santorum in 2006.

U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum fell further behind Democratic Senate candidate Robert P. Casey Jr. in the latest Quinnipiac University survey, a drop the pollster attributed to the Republican's work on several controversial national issues. Casey leads Santorum by 49 percent to 35 percent, with 13 percent undecided, in the poll, which was taken April 13-18, after several high-profile weeks for the two-term senator. Santorum has been prominent in pushing President Bush's plan to overhaul Social Security and congressional intervention in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case - positions that prompted one-third or more of the 1,395 respondents to say they would be less likely to vote for him. Bush's standing among Pennsylvanians - his 43 percent approval rating is one of the lowest in three years - also isn't helping Santorum, said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac's polling institute.

President Bush is expected to raise more than $750,000 today for Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's reelection campaign during a swing through Pennsylvania that includes stops in Montgomery County and State College. Bush will attend a Santorum luncheon at a home in Bryn Mawr before traveling to the main campus of Pennsylvania State University to give a speech on Social Security. John Brabender, Santorum's media consultant, said the fund-raiser would collect more money than the initial projection of $750,000.

A union representing National Weather Service employees took its case against a bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) to the radio this weekend, putting up ads that accuse him of trying to privatize the federal agency. The commercials extend a debate that began in April when Santorum introduced the bill dealing with the relationship between the weather service and private weather companies. The conflict stems from differing interpretations of the bill. In the 60-second ad, a speaker says the weather service would be forced to funnel its data to private companies, which could then "sell the reports for a profit.

DES MOINES, Iowa - Was it a three-way tie, a photo finish or a flat-out win for the redoubtable Rick Santorum? However the final Iowa caucus numbers read, the former Pennsylvania senator's showing far exceeded what many of his top staffers, jubilant at the Stony Creek Inn here Tuesday night, could have dreamed of six years before. That was when Santorum had lost his Senate seat by 18 percentage points to Democrat Bob Casey. Fast-forward to the Stony Creek Inn, where those same loyalists had cause to celebrate after months of struggling in rural Iowa just to gain attention.

Aides to Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum produced a transcript yesterday of a 2004 interview in which he voiced "concerns about tactics and decisions" in the Iraq war - after saying earlier that they could not document the senator's claim he had publicly questioned the war. Santorum's independence from the Bush administration on Iraq has emerged as an early issue in the 2006 Senate race, with leading Democratic opponent Robert P. Casey Jr....

On the same day Sen. Rick Santorum canceled a fund-raising trip to Texas because of Hurricane Katrina, his leading Democratic opponent collected $18,000 in Austin and met with prospective donors in Houston. Robert P. Casey Jr. traveled to Texas Sept. 19, a detail the Democrat's campaign did not disclose when asked last month whether he planned to raise money outside the state before close of the quarterly fund-raising period on Sept. 30. "The vast majority of our fund-raising is taking place in Pennsylvania and in areas not affected by the floods," said Jay Reiff, Casey's campaign manager, in a Sept.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's trip to Iowa to speak to conservative activists early next month throws a spotlight on his possible run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Those Oct. 1 appearances have been on Santorum's calendar for a while, but earlier this week he affirmed that he is thinking about a campaign, calling President Obama's policies "injurious to America. " Iowa's caucuses are the nation's first presidential nominating contests, and several potential GOP candidates already have trooped to the state.

Although it's very early in Campaign 2000, there's evidence that U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., could face re-election trouble next year. A Daily News/Fox 29 Keystone Poll, an "opening snapshot" of the race ahead, shows statewide voters less than enchanted with their freshman senator. The 41-year-old conservative wunderkind of Pittsburgh, a favorite of the pro-life, pro-gun political right, shows only a 41 percent overall approval rating, low for any incumbent with no real controversy but especially for one in a GOP-dominated state enjoying a strong economy.

If New Jersey Democrats can find a way to put a substitute for Sen. Robert G. Torricelli on the Nov. 5 U.S. Senate ballot, that candidate will immediately need millions of dollars for a quick-hit advertising campaign on television. Mounting a credible campaign from scratch, five weeks before the election, would be a tough job, but it could be done, analysts said yesterday. Hank Sheinkopf, a national Democratic consultant with long experience in New Jersey politics, said that if he were running the campaign, he would immediately start "banging away" at Republican nominee Douglas Forrester with TV spots attacking his conservative positions on abortion and the environment.

THE PRIMARY election season for the 2016 presidential cycle may be three years away but we've already noticed one name missing from the pack of would-be contenders in several polls. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum , who finished second to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the 2012 Republican primaries, is not getting much pollster attention. That stood out to us because Romney finished second in the 2008 Republican primaries to U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who finished second in 2000 to former Texas Gov. George W. Bush . McCain and Romney went on to win the GOP nomination for president in their next attempts.

Rick Santorum is playing it coy. He's looking for a little sweet talk, and at least a bouquet, before he makes a long-term commitment. Ten days after suspending his own campaign for president, Santorum has yet to endorse the all-but-certain Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. A seemingly perfect opportunity came and went at a party unity event Tuesday morning, when Romney visited a Pittsburgh suburb. But Santorum was not there. Indeed, the former U.S. senator from Pittsburgh told 4,000 supporters on a conference call just hours before the event that he would be fine if they wanted to vote for him in next Tuesday's Pennsylvania GOP primary, or in any upcoming contest, for that matter - notwithstanding his own announcement on April 10 that he was "suspending" his campaign.

GETTYSBURG - Bowing to the math of the moment, Rick Santorum suspended his ailing presidential campaign today, ensuring Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee in November. "We made a decision over the weekend, that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, and we will suspend our campaign today, we are not done fighting," the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania announced in a speech here. Santorum's surprise move came one day after his disabled daughter Bella was released from a hospital in Virginia, where Santorum now lives.

To some analysts, Rick Santorum's campaign for president seems to have entered the zombie phase: not dead, but not fully alive either. After sweeping Tuesday's Wisconsin, Maryland, and District of Columbia primaries, Mitt Romney has tightened his grip on the Republican nomination, and a rising chorus of GOP leaders is suggesting that Santorum quit in order to avoid further damage to the party's chances this fall. Yet Santorum declared he was staying in the race, at least through the April 24 Pennsylvania primary, determined to litigate his case against Romney as a false conservative who offers a poor contrast to President Obama.

Rick Santorum, the Republican presidential candidate and devout Christian, looks to be playing the prodigal son when his campaign rolls through Pennsylvania for the April 24 primary. So far, his GOP brethren are not crazy about welcoming him home. Not a single major statewide Republican leader in Pennsylvania has endorsed him. Not Gov. Corbett nor Sen. Pat Toomey. The state party chairman is sitting it out. None of the five candidates vying to take on Democrat Bob Casey for Santorum's old Senate seat is pushing for him. Not even his friend Rep. Tim Murphy (R., Pa.)

BEXLEY, Ohio - Fresh from victories in Arizona and Michigan, Mitt Romney traveled to the next major battleground - Ohio - for a couple of campaign stops Wednesday as he began trying to chip away at a lead held in the state by rival Rick Santorum. Yet the outcome in Michigan, Romney's had-to-win home state, left both Republican candidates claiming victory. Santorum's campaign said each of them appeared to have carried seven congressional districts in Tuesday's primary and would walk away with 15 delegates apiece - though Romney won the statewide popular vote 41 percent to 38 percent.

BEXLEY, Ohio - Fresh from victories in Arizona and Michigan, Mitt Romney traveled to the next major battleground - Ohio - for a couple of campaign stops Wednesday as he began trying to chip away at a lead held in the state by rival Rick Santorum. Yet the outcome in Michigan, Romney's had-to-win home state, left both Republican candidates claiming victory. Santorum's campaign said each of them appeared to have carried seven congressional districts in Tuesday's primary and would walk away with 15 delegates apiece - though Romney won the statewide popular vote 41 percent to 38 percent.

DES MOINES, Iowa - Was it a three-way tie, a photo finish or a flat-out win for the redoubtable Rick Santorum? However the final Iowa caucus numbers read, the former Pennsylvania senator's showing far exceeded what many of his top staffers, jubilant at the Stony Creek Inn here Tuesday night, could have dreamed of six years before. That was when Santorum had lost his Senate seat by 18 percentage points to Democrat Bob Casey. Fast-forward to the Stony Creek Inn, where those same loyalists had cause to celebrate after months of struggling in rural Iowa just to gain attention.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's trip to Iowa to speak to conservative activists early next month throws a spotlight on his possible run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Those Oct. 1 appearances have been on Santorum's calendar for a while, but earlier this week he affirmed that he is thinking about a campaign, calling President Obama's policies "injurious to America. " Iowa's caucuses are the nation's first presidential nominating contests, and several potential GOP candidates already have trooped to the state.