Robo-call war begins: Rick Santorum says Mitt Romney wrote ‘personal checks, funding Planned Parenthood’

The first robo-call of the GOP presidential race arrived at the west Cobb County homestead this afternoon.

Notably, it was a personal message from Rick Santorum, challenging – not Newt Gingrich – but Mitt Romney. Santorum and Romney, according to the latest AJC polling, are locked in a tight race for second place in Tuesday’s vote.

This is why Romney was in Snellville this afternoon.

In his phone message, Santorum accused Romney of writing personal checks to Planned Parenthood – something we hadn’t heard in the GOP discourse so far. Said Santorum:

”….Two-thirds of Governor Romney’s contributions come from people who give the maximum amount. Two-thirds of my donations come from people who give under $100. My campaign doesn’t have the money that the Romney campaign does. We have something else that Mitt Romney will never have. That’s the support of hard-working families, a conservative track record, and a vision to change this country.

“You see, while Governor Romney was writing personal checks, funding Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in America, I was writing the law ending partial-birth abortions. [While] Governor Romney was creating his new big-government entitlement program called ‘Romneycare,’ I was successfully ending an entitlement program called welfare, sending millions from welfare to work. And while Governor Romney supported the outrageous, taxpayer-funded Wall Street bail-out, I was disapproving bail-outs and fighting for a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.

“The choice on Tuesday couldn’t be more clear….”

My AJC colleague Daniel Malloy says this article, originally the work of the Boston Globe, is likely the basis for Santorum’s accusation:

As abortion continues to define the Republican presidential primary, Mitt Romney’s campaign said Wednesday that Romney’s wife, Ann, made a $150 contribution to Planned Parenthood in 1994, the year Romney ran for Senate as a candidate supporting abortion rights.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said Ann Romney does not remember whether it was a straight donation to the abortion rights group, which supports abortion rights, or whether she wrote the check as an admission fee for an event.

“Since it was so long ago, Ann has no information of the circumstances,” he said.
Madden confirmed the payment in response to a question from the Globe.

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

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