Pennsylvania State Senate Republicans are sounding their support for Pennsylvania's former U-S senator, Rick Santorum, as he makes a bid for the party's presidential nomination. This week Santorum gathered endorsements from two key G-O-P senators.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Jake Corman (R- Centre County) said Santorum's low poll numbers are not an indication that he is not a viable candidate. Corman feels the 16-year veteran of Congress has a history of coming from behind to win political races. But Corman acknowledges it will take some serious strides to catch up with the campaign coffers of other Republican presidential hopefuls.
"Obviously fund raising is important, as the senator said when he came through the state last week, that most people get out of presidential races when they run out of money. And so we're going to the best we can to support him in that way as well," said Corman.
Just about all the other Republican candidates have raised millions more than Santorum, whose campaign reported having raised about $580,000 at the end of June.
PA Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati (R- Jefferson County) is the second high-ranking Republican Senator endorsing Santorum. "He's a pretty well-tested candidate and he's gone through all the rigors of the public scrutiny. Whether people like him or not, that's their pick, they know everything that there is to know about him, but I think on the other hand, these other candidates – there's a lot of unknowns out there," said Scarnati.
Scarnati said he hopes lining up home state support for Santorum will give his campaign "whatever little boost" possible to get him to the next level.
"I think what becomes a game-changer is as the field narrows, and there's only a limited number of people going to be jumping into the race at this time, as the field continues to narrow I believe that the only place for Rick's support to go is up," said Scarnati.
The Santorum campaign said they have a total of 15 PA State Senators in their corner.
