It’s 4th and 10 for Santorum as He Hunts for Iowa Caucus Votes at Sports Bars

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum made his way Friday through a media crush — a new campaign dynamic after being written off in the GOP race — to mingle with the crowd at an Ames sports bar to watch Iowa State University in the Pinstripe Bowl.

The metaphor of hosting a bowl party for a Cinderalla team like Iowa State seemed made for Santorum’s come-from-behind campaign, which has surged in the polls. Just as the Cyclones sealed a bowl invitation after upsetting at-the-time No. 2 Oklahoma State, Santorum hopes he can ride a surge in the polls to a strong Caucus night finish.

A CNN poll of likely caucus-goers suggests that’s possible. Santorum’s support has tripled since the beginning of the month, and now he’s now in third place with support from 16 percent of Iowa Republicans who say they’ll participate in their neighborhood caucuses Tuesday.

Before Santorum's arrival, the fired-up crowd was more interested in seeing the Cyclones knock off Rutgers than greeting the candidate. “We’re here for the football,” announced Sara Okerlund.

But the game was momentarily forgotten when the 53-year-old candidate with chiseled, prep-school good looks waded through the crowd of Iowa State students and alumni, demonstrating the same art of retail politicking that makes him one of the candidates to watch Tuesday night.

Santorum Thinks He Can Finish Better Than Third

Can he ride the surge beyond Iowa?

“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think I could do well,” he said.

Santorum thinks it’s possible he’ll finish higher than third Tuesday as undecided voters find their way to his campaign.

“I think I have the momentum to do that,” he said.

Asked what might trip him up at the last minute, Santorum remained upbeat

“This isn’t my first rodeo in an election like this,” he said. “I’ve been through a lot of scrubbing by the national media on my record.”

During the party, he visited with supporters and football fans, covered his crisp red and white pinstriped shirt with a red Cyclone vest, and ate hot wings with Carrie Jollymore of Des Moines, who has supported Santorum since early in the campaign.

Undecided Voters Giving Santorum Another Look

Jollymore said she was drawn to Santorum while reading W. Cleon Skousen’s The Five Thousand Year Leap examining the relationship between Biblical law and the writing of the U.S. Constitution.

“The book talks a lot about virtues and putting moral people in leadership positions,” Jollymore said. “I see Rick Santorum as virtuous and ready to lead.”

Jon Frank, 23, was at the bar the watch the game, but said he’s giving strong consideration to supporting Santorum. He initially backed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and then Romney, but was miffed at both for not participating in the Ames Straw Poll and said he will reward a candidate who has spent more time in Iowa with his vote.

That could be Santorum. He has spent more time in the state — 100 days — more than any of the six contenders for Iowa Republicans’ blessings. And he has visited all of the state's 99 counties at least once.

Frank likes Santorum’s charisma, but he also likes Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who he plans to see Saturday, and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who he saw last week.

Frank says he’s like “a lot of people in Iowa” and hasn’t made up his mind. Indeed, the Des Moines Register’s highly respected Iowa Poll two weeks ago found 60 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers were still undecided and 11 percent had not yet committed to a candidate.

Iowa State students Kaitlin Binde and Talia Patton said they’re not likely to caucus Tuesday, but were interested in hearing whether Santorum would address spiraling tuition costs that will leave them with a minimum of $35,000 debt when they graduated.

Rivals Criticize Santorum's Pork-Barrel Spending

As some Iowa Republicans give him a second look, he’s fending off attacks from other candidates that he’s not a true conservative because of his votes for earmarks, which Perry called “the gateway drug to the spending habit they have in Washington, D.C.”

Santorum has brushed aside the criticism, saying that though he has voted for pork-barrel spending to support pet projects in his home state of Pennsylvania and others — including Alaska, where his critics say he voted for the “bridge to nowhere” — he’s had a change of heart.

“I feel like I’m at an AA meeting,” he told a group of Rotarians in New Hampshire. “Hi, I’m Rick, and I was an earmarker.”

A social conservative who has signed The Family Leader’s marriage pledge and gained endorsements of two key Iowa evangelical leaders — the Family Leader’s Bob Vander Plaats, and Iowa Family Policy Center’s Chuck Hurley — Santorum was widely criticized in 2003 after comparing consensual homosexual relationships to pedophilia.

Vander Plaats has taken credit for Santorum’s surge, and his endorsement may be enough to convince Dan Corey, 22, to vote for him.

“I think Santorum’s going to make a huge push at the end,” he said.

Corey, a student at Morningside College in Sioux City, said he opposes gay marriage on religious grounds. “It’s so random we have this in Iowa,” he said. “It’s a pretty conservative state.”

Same-sex marriage is an issue both Corey and his football-watching buddy, Jon Frank, oppose, but both said the big issue is the economy.