Santorum Surrogate: 'This is By Far the Most Unorganized Organization I've Ever Seen'

By Beth Reinhard // April 9, 2012 | 5:36 p.m.

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The Republican presidential candidate hanging on by his fingernails has beefed up what was a thin campaign schedule this week in Pennsylvania. And if Rick Santorum is getting ready to bow out of the race, as some folks would like to think, he forgot to tell Chuck Laudner, a leading Iowa surrogate who is spending this week in Washington state, trying to drum up support among party activists seeking to be convention delegates.

"It's like herding cats,'' said Laudner, a former executive director of the Iowa Republican Party and ex-chief of staff to Rep. Steve King. "This is by far the most unorganized organization I've ever seen.''

The state held what was essentially a straw poll on March 3. Mitt Romney won, followed by Ron Paul. Santorum ran a close third. But Santorum has been arguing that here and in other states, he will overperform in the little-publicized, arcane county caucuses that actually elect delegates to the convention throughout this month. If Romney fails to get the 1,144 delegates needed to lock down the nomination before the convention, Santorum thinks he could win a floor fight.

"These are conservative people who actually want to spend their Saturday in a high school gymnasium for a caucus,'' Laudner said. "They're not Romney people.''