Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/10/2005 | Blaming schedule, Santorum will miss Bush's visit to Pa.: " Posted on Thu, Nov. 10, 2005
Blaming schedule, Santorum will miss Bush's visit to Pa.
The senator's aides say he is not distancing himself from the struggling President.
By Thomas Fitzgerald
Inquirer Staff Writer
When President Bush touches down in Wilkes-Barre to talk about the war on terrorism Friday, the Senate's No. 3 Republican - the vulnerable Rick Santorum - will be 116 miles away in Philadelphia addressing the American Legion.
Unavoidable scheduling conflict, Santorum's office says.
As the GOP loss in the Virginia governor's race Tuesday showed, however, it might also be a blessing to be in a different media market when Bush and his rock-bottom approval ratings come to your state.
Many analysts said that the result of the race in Republican-leaning Virginia offered hints that the President's sagging popularity could drag the party down in 2006. Some even suggested that Bush's 11th-hour visit to Richmond doomed GOP candidate Jerry Kilgore by inviting voters to take out on him their dissatisfaction with the White House.
Santorum already is trailing in polls against his likely Democratic opponent next year, State Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr.
"Republicans have every reason to be concerned," said Terry Madonna, a political analyst and pollster based at Franklin and Marshall College. "Santorum needs a degree of separation, to establish independence from the President so voters believe he represents their interests."
But there was no intent to keep away from the President, Santorum spokesman Robert Traynham said. He said Santorum received the invitation on Oct. 6 to address the Legion's annual Veterans Day luncheon at the Union League and accepted the next day, while Bush's travel plans were not set until just a few days ago.
Santorum's staff and the White House tried to juggle the schedule, but the two events are both set for midday, and it would have been impossible to make it work, Traynham said. "The senator really wants to be there," he said, but "to cancel now would be completely disrespectful to the veterans."
After Air Force One lands in Wilkes-Barre, Bush is scheduled to visit Tobyhanna Army Depot in nearby Monroe County for an event.
Bush's job approval rating has slid to below 40 percent in several national and Pennsylvania polls, and Santorum's own rating has dropped along with the President's. In a survey last month by Quinnipiac University, for instance, 43 percent of Pennsylvania voters approved of Santorum's performance while 37 percent approved of Bush.
Several factors - including the handling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, the unpopular war in Iraq, high energy prices, and a scandal over the leak of a CIA officer's name - have contributed to Bush's difficulties, analysts say. And that could entail some risk for Santorum, who as a Senate leader has been closely identified with the White House agenda.
Casey's campaign has been stressing those ties at every turn, and it seized on the scheduling difficulty to accuse him of running. "Election Year Rick doesn't want voters to remember he was President Bush's cheerleader," said Jay Reiff, the challenger's campaign manager.
In recent months, Santorum has been more vocal about disagreements with Bush: He said the President muffed the salesmanship of his stalled plan to reform Social Security with private accounts. He criticized the recently withdrawn nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and has fought White House plans to cut Amtrak funding.
"We're beginning to see a little case of separation here," Madonna said.
But Santorum said in June at a fund-raiser at which Bush raised $1.7 million for him that the President can "come as often as he likes." And Vice President Cheney hosted a fund-raiser for Santorum last month.
John Brabender, Santorum's media consultant, cautioned against drawing conclusions about 2006 from Tuesday's off-year elections. Democrats won governorships in New Jersey and Virginia four years ago, when Bush's popularity was soaring after 9/11, and then got hammered in congressional races in 2002 and 2004, he said.
"Until the candidates are on TV, until there are debates and people know where Bobby Casey and Rick Santorum stand, there are secondary factors that influence the race, such as the national environment and the President's approval rating," Brabender said.
"But ultimately each race will be decided individually... when people see the candidates in action side by side," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer Thomas Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com."
No comments:
Post a Comment