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Pennsylvania: Junior Senator Sen. Rick Santorum (R) Last Updated September 15, 2003
Rick Santorum, a Republican elected in 1994, is the fifth-youngest senator, elected from one of the oldest states, a strong conservative elected in a state that still has many New Deal voters. Santorum is the son of an Italian immigrant who was a clinical psychologist for the Veterans' Administration; he was born in Virginia and moved to Butler, Pennsylvania, at age 7. He started in politics working for John Heinz's first Senate campaign in 1976; he went to Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh business school and worked his way through Dickinson law school as a staffer for state Senate Republicans in Harrisburg; he worked for a blue chip law firm in Pittsburgh for four years. In 1990, at 32, he challenged seven-term incumbent Congressman Doug Walgren, who outspent him $717,000 to $251,000. But Santorum knocked on 25,000 doors, amassed an army of volunteers including many right-to-lifers, attacked Walgren for voting for a pay raise seven times and for living in the Washington suburbs. Santorum opposed the congressional pay raise, backed the line-item veto and came out for limits on PAC contributions. He won 51%-49%. In the House he had a solid conservative voting record and was one of the ''Gang of Seven'' freshman Republicans who helped expose the House bank scandal. Redistricting gave him a seat shorn of many Republican suburbs and centered on the industrial Monongahela Valley, historically very Democratic. Santorum beat a state senator 61%-38%--an astonishing victory. Brash and confident, Santorum immediately started running for the Senate. His opponent was Harris Wofford, appointed in May 1991 to replace John Heinz (who died in a plane crash), and subsequently elected in a November 1991 special election upset win over former Governor Dick Thornburgh 55%-45%. Wofford won the special election by emphasizing health care; he was politically hurt when the Clinton health care bill failed to pass. This was a race of sharp contrasts in issues and style: Santorum, brashly eager to chop government, backing medical savings accounts and opposing gun control; Wofford, a former civil rights activist, earnestly working for government health care financing, backing the 1994 crime bill and gun control. Wofford appealed to a long liberal tradition; Santorum scoffed at him for championing 1960s ideas in the 1990s. Santorum ran behind only 50%-47% in metro Pittsburgh, where Wofford had won 61% in 1991. Santorum did not go over so well in metro Philadelphia, which Wofford carried 54%-42%. But in the rest of the state--where half the votes are cast and where gun control hurt Wofford--Santorum won 55%-41%, for a statewide victory of 49%-47%. Since then, they have become allies of sorts. Bill Clinton appointed Wofford to head AmeriCorps, a Clinton initiative Santorum had called a "government boondoggle" that paid "hippie kids to stand around a campfire holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya.'" But Wofford transformed it into a program that provided government support for private nonprofits, and Santorum has supported it and gave Wofford credit. Santorum was not cowed by the traditions of the Senate. In his first full month there he argued about the balanced budget amendment with Robert Byrd, who was first elected to the Senate the year Santorum was born. Then, when senior Republican Mark Hatfield cast a decisive vote against the amendment, Santorum called on Hatfield to be removed as Appropriations chairman. Senior senators and Washington insiders tut-tutted. Hatfield wasn't removed, but Senate Republicans changed the rules, limiting chairmen to six years and calling for secret ballot elections of chairmen starting in 1997. Later in 1995 Santorum took to the floor a dozen times with a ''Where's Bill?'' sign, asking where the President's balanced budget was; Democrats were furious. Santorum's voting record remains one of the most conservative in the Senate, but he is not quite so brash anymore. As his colleague Arlen Specter said in November 2002, "Rick might not like my saying this, but I think he's moderated a good bit over the years." After the 2000 election he was elected chairman of the Republican Conference, the number three position in the leadership, in charge of communicating Senate Republicans' message, by a 30-20 margin over Christopher Bond. He has taken the lead on important legislation, and on occasion at some political risk. Santorum floor-managed the welfare bill to passage three times in 1995 and 1996; the first two times it was vetoed by Bill Clinton, but in August 1996, 13 weeks before the election, Clinton signed it. Santorum has also taken the lead on the partial birth abortion ban. It was vetoed twice by Clinton; in March 2003, Santorum introduced the measure one again and it passed the Senate 64-33; it awaited House action. This was not just a theoretical issue for him: In 1996 he and his wife had to decide what to do when their unborn child had a fatal defect; the baby was born in October 1996 and died two hours later. The 1996 welfare bill contained a provision allowing more leeway for faith-based organizations to get government money to provide social services. Some use of this was made by the Clinton administration, and George W. Bush mentioned faith-based services frequently in his 2000 campaign. As president, Bush issued an executive order allowing more grants to faith-based organizations and called for Congress to pass legislation providing tax deductions and credits to strengthen such groups. This proved to be a rocky process, in which Santorum and Joe Lieberman took the lead role in the Senate. The House passed a bill in July 2001 with expanded block grants, tax breaks and a provision exempting faith-based organizations from state anti-discrimination laws, similar to that in the 1996 welfare act; some organizations want to hire members of their own faith and some refuse to hire homosexuals. In February 2002 Santorum and Lieberman introduced their bill, expanded block grants to states for child care and family welfare, providing a charitable deduction of $800 to couples who take the standard deduction, tax breaks for corporations who give money to charities, and tax deductions to banks which match individual development accounts set by low-income people for their education or starting a business. The Finance Committee passed a pared-down version in June 2002, without the corporate tax breaks. In September, Santorum tried to get the bill to the floor under a procedure allowing one amendment for each party, with Phil Gramm moving to delete the individual development accounts. But Jack Reed of Rhode Island wanted to introduce several amendments, and Tom Daschle never put the measure on the calendar. In January 2003 Santorum reintroduced the bill. As Republican Conference Chairman, Santorum has worked aggressively to develop a unified voice for the party and to get Republican senators in touch with constituencies they have previously not had much to do with. One project has been to increase the number of Republicans hired to run business lobbies. Since the days of the New Deal, most Washington lobbyists have been Democrats, a natural development given that the Democrats held the White House from 1932 to 1952 and for most of the years from 1960 to 1980 and had majorities in the House and, except for six years, in the Senate from 1954 to 1994. Santorum and his allies argue that Democratic lobbyists tilt business interests toward Democrats, both in public policy and in campaign contributions. Santorum has held monthly breakfasts with Republican lobbyists, sometimes including White House political strategist Karl Rove. "We've been deficient in using our friends in the lobbying community who are sympathetic to our message, to let them know what we're doing and why and getting that out through their clients." With Congressman J. C. Watts and Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist, Santorum objected loudly in early September 2001 when Boeing hired a Democrat to head its Washington office. Leaders of left-leaning organizations objected, and in 2002 complaints were made to the Senate Ethics Committee. In August 2002 the committee sent out a letter to all senators saying they can't deny access to lobbyists based on their political party or campaign contributions. On internal party matters, Santorum in June 2002 asked for reconsideration or clarification of the party's six-year term limit on committee chairmen. The Republican Conference met and agreed that service as chairman from January to June 2001 did not count against the term limit, that members could serve six years as ranking minority member in addition to six years as chairman, provided that after six years as chairman they could no longer be ranking minority member; the issue was mooted, for the time being, by Republicans' recovery of the Senate majority in the 2002 election. In December 2002 Santorum was one of the staunchest defenders, in public and in private, of Majority Leader Trent Lott after his comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party December 5. On December 15 he said, "Senator Lott's affirmation that all people are equal--not only under our Constitution but also in the eyes of God--reflects the Trent Lott that I have known and worked with for so many years." On December 17 he said, "I'm confident Senator Lott will be our leader." But support for Lott was crumbling and it was clear that the required five senators would call for a meeting of the Republican Conference when Congress convened on January 6. On December 20, Lott bowed out. Santorum began calling senators seeking support for the position himself and got a public endorsement from Arlen Specter. But by the end of the afternoon it was clear that Bill Frist had the votes. Santorum convened a Conference meeting by phone call on December 23, and Frist was chosen without opposition. Before the Lott affair, Santorum was in line to become chairman of the Rules Committee and was making plans for the job. But in January he stepped aside to allow Lott to become chairman. Santorum has taken some stands with a view to local interests and out of personal beliefs. He backed minimum wage increases in the House and Senate, and supported the steel import quota bill that died in June 1999. He backed George W. Bush's steel import quotas in March 2002 and worked to try to link oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with the proposal for the government legacy payments--payments of health insurance costs for steelworkers whose companies have gone bankrupt. After the May 2002 cancellation of the Army's Crusader cannon, he sought continued work for contractor United Defense. In January 2003 he and Arlen Specter sought to allow financially troubled USAirways, whose big hub is in Pittsburgh, more time to make payments from their pension plan. He supported the compromise organ transplant bill which would have sent organs to the sickest patients instead of those who live closest to the donors (Pittsburgh has one of the country's biggest organ transplant programs). He opposed George W. Bush's proposal for a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases; in 1999 his wife sued a chiropractor for $500,000 for back injuries and was awarded $175,000. He has proposed a Puppy Protection Act, to require the closing of puppy mills that have violated the Animal Welfare Act three times. Santorum is the first Republican generally classified as conservative to have been elected senator in Pennsylvania since 1952, and some thought he would be in trouble in 2000. But he ended up winning convincingly. Three major Democrats ran in the primary: state Senator Allyson Schwartz, from Philadelphia; former state Labor Secretary Tom Foley, from Hershey, who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1994 and auditor general in 1996; and Congressman Ron Klink, from suburban Pittsburgh and a former anchor on KDKA-TV. This was primarily a regional contest. Klink, who opposes gun control and abortion, had great strength in his home media market; he borrowed $300,000 on his home and put most of his money into Pittsburgh TV. Klink's strategy paid off. Metro Pittsburgh, which cast 35% of the vote, voted 73% for Klink. Statewide, Klink won 41% of the vote, to 27% for Schwartz and 25% for Foley. On paper Klink looked like a strong candidate, with vote-getting appeal in Santorum's home base and conservative issue stands appealing in the "T" between metro Philadelphia and metro Pittsburgh. Klink launched an attack at Santorum's proposal for individual investment accounts in Social Security; Santorum continued to argue for the proposal. Social Security is supposed to be a Democratic issue, especially in states with large elderly populations like Pennsylvania. But there is no evidence that the issue hurt Santorum in 2000. Santorum was way ahead in one key respect: money. Santorum had $3.7 million cash on hand after the April primary; Klink had $119,000, with debts of $446,000. And Klink had great difficulty raising more. For Democratic donors in the Philadelphia area, and for that matter in the nation generally, no issues evoke stronger emotions than abortion and gun control, and on these issues Klink's stands were totally out of line with the Democratic contributor base. In the meantime, Santorum was running positive ads about his record, campaigning as a "compassionate conservative," emphasizing his ability to work with Democrats like Joe Lieberman and Rendell. The first Klink ads did not go up until September; he went negative against Santorum, and voters never really heard a positive case for Klink. Santorum won 52%-46%. He ran behind in metro Philadelphia 53%-45%, but this 8% margin was far less than Al Gore's 25% margin over George W. Bush there. Santorum ran slightly behind his 1994 showing in metro Pittsburgh, which Klink carried 52%-46%. But in the rest of the state, which cast 46% of the votes, Santorum won a whopping 60%-37% margin, a big improvement over 1994. After 2000 Santorum began taking a role in other elections. He was one of the few Republican senators who backed Congressman John Sununu in the New Hampshire primary against incumbent Senator Bob Smith. Santorum also played a key role in Pennsylvania redistricting. Santorum also worked hard for the unsuccessful candidacy of Lou Barletta against 11th District Democrat Paul Kanjorski, to the point that Kanjorski charged Santorum had instigated an FBI probe of his relationship to a firm controlled by members of his family which had received $7.5 million in federal grants in three years. Kanjorski won, but the redistricting plan proved successful: Republicans went into the election with an 11-10 edge in the delegation and emerged ahead 12-7. In April 2003 Santorum sparked controversy with his remarks regarding a landmark gay rights case before the Supreme Court. "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything," he told the Associated Press. Democrats and gay rights groups harshly criticized Santorum for his comments; several Senate Republicans also criticized him. Santorum refused to apologize, explaining that he was speaking to the position taken by the high court in a previous gay rights case and did not want to elevate gay sex into a constitutional right.
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