Romney, Santorum, Obama trade some campaign digs

Associated Press

CHICAGO

After two Deep South losses, Mitt Romney is intensifying his campaign efforts in the economically challenged Midwest — a friendly region for him — in hopes of regaining his front-runner’s momentum when Illinois has its Republican presidential primary Tuesday.

But the race for Illinois and its cache of 54 delegates is tighter than might have been expected, thanks to Rick Santorum’s recent rise in opinion polls. And President Barack Obama, the Democrat they both hope to oust, is making his presence felt, too, in his adopted home state.

Romney is mindful of the threat from Santorum. He and his allies are pouring money into the state, near Michigan where he grew up and his father was governor. Romney won the Michigan primary Feb. 28.

Romney’s on the attack.

“We are not going to be successful in replacing an economic lightweight if we nominate an economic lightweight,” the former Massachusetts governor said Friday at an early morning stop in suburban Rosemont near Chicago. The criticism, focusing on the economy, which is the voters’ No. 1 concern, was a one-two punch against both President Barack Obama and Republican Santorum. “I am an economic heavyweight, and I know how to fix this economy,” Romney declared.

Romney also began airing a TV advertisement in Illinois accusing Santorum, a former two-term senator, of having little understanding of the economy. He began airing a radio ad pointing to Santorum’s crushing defeat for re-election in 2006. Santorum lost his seat in Pennsylvania to Democrat Bob Casey by 18 percentage points.

Santorum, just back from campaigning in Puerto Rico for Sunday’s primary there, sounded confident.

Appearing at a Hispanic grocery store in Prospect Heights, Ill., he shot back at his rival.

“I believe in a light touch of government where Gov. Romney believes in a very heavy touch,” Santorum said. “So he is an economic government heavyweight.”

Obama was fundraising and campaigning in Illinois, too, on Friday and taking his own shots at the Republicans — for negative campaigning.

Noting he was in “the land of Lincoln,” Obama said the Republicans weren’t exactly appealing to — in the Civil War president’s words — “the better angels of our nature.”