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The new Republican Party Chairman, Ken Mailman, tells a group of conservatives that Rick Santorum, two-term Senator from Pennsylvania and a member of the Senate GOP Leadership, is in the President's top priority 2006 senatorial race. Sara Taylor, the new White House Political Director, tells a conservative audience that the President has no better friend than Rick Santorum and the President intends to do whatever is necessary to help him win a third term. The Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial [Campaign] Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), tells a business group that Rick Santorum is a top priority for the committee and pleads for financial help for that expensive big-state campaign.

What gives here? Why suddenly does Rick Santorum warrant this level of assistance?

A couple of reasons, one of which is his almost assured opponent, Bob Casey Jr. I know the fellow. He looks, sounds, even gestures, just like his father, the two-term Governor of Pennsylvania. Unless the National Abortion Rights Action League can produce a candidate of substance Casey will be the Democratic nominee to face Santorum. Casey, who now is the statewide-elected treasurer of Pennsylvania, announced for the Senate a few days ago. Barbara Hafer, Republican turned Democrat, who served as state auditor, announced her candidacy the day after Casey announced his. NARAL sent two staffers to Pennsylvania to open Hafer headquarters. They hardly had arrived when Hafer announced that she was ending her candidacy, after just two days. Why? Because Governor Edward Rendell, former National Democratic Party National Chairman, pleaded with her to do so. Why the desire to pave the way for Casey to be the nominee? Because he is pro-life. You may recall his late father was denied a chance to speak at the 1992 Democratic National Convention because he, too, was pro-life. He was, and even in death is, a revered figure in Pennsylvania politics.

Santorum has had an advantage in his two elections to the Senate and in winning his very Democratic House seat before that. He could get the pro-life cross-over vote, which disgruntled Democrats provided. These are Democrats, around five to seven percent of the electorate, who put the issue of life above their party and who will vote Republican, however reluctantly, when the choice is between a pro-life and a pro- abortion candidate.

For 2006, Santorum will not have this advantage. Governor Rendell, a former Mayor of Philadelphia and the undisputed boss of Democrat politics in the Keystone State, noted that some years back, when the younger Casey tried to run for Governor, he was defeated in the primary by Hafer, who in turn lost the general election. Rendell is wise to be concerned. Several recent polls show Santorum clobbering Hafer and former Congressman Joseph Hoeffel, who lost to Senator Arlen Specter in the 2004 election. Even Specter benefited from the same advantage which Santorum has. Specter, upon occasion, casts a pro-life vote, such as on partial-birth abortion. Hoeffel, on the other hand, never, ever has voted pro-life. So some pro-lifers crossed over and voted, if perhaps reluctantly, for Specter.

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