Gingrich, Santorum, Paul vie for conservative Minnesota hearts

Three of the four remaining Republican presidential candidates stopped in Minnesota on Monday, hoping to win support from voters heading to their precinct caucuses Tuesday evening. Though Minnesota's party caucuses are non-binding, a win could show momentum for a candidate in a still-fractured race.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich greeted an audience of several hundred in a Bloomington hotel ballroom Tuesday evening with a promise to repeal President Barack Obama's signature health care reform legislation, and a full-frontal attack on GOP front-runner Mitt Romney, the former Massachussetts governor.

"The fact is, when you look at his record as governor -- not the commercials, his record -- governor Romney was functionally pro-abortion, pro gun-control and pro-tax increase," Gingrich said. "The fact is, between his tax increases and Romney-care, he had the third-worst record of any governor on job creation. Pitting that against Obama, I think is very dubious."

He also asserted that Republicans can only win back the White House is they nominate a conservative candidate. He cited recent nominees Bob Dole and John McCain as examples.

"When we nominate moderates, they lose. In 1996, we nominated a moderate, he lost badly. IN 2008, we nominated a moderate, he lost badly," Gingrich said.

Gene Parks and his family came from Rosemount to hear the candidate. As they left, Parks, his wife and sons picked up Gingrich lawn signs, and Parks said they're impressed.

"We are conservative. We don't make any qualms about being conservative in this liberal state of Minnesota. And we've been watching the candidates and seeing how the media -- and actually, even the Republican party themselves -- have sort of been picking on Newt and that tells us right there that something good must be going on with him as a candidate," Parks said. "This sort of reinforces tonight what we've been feeling all along."

The latest poll of likely Minnesota caucus voters from Public Policy Polling puts Gingrich in third place with 22 percent support. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum leads with 33 percent, followed by Romney at 24 precent. Texas Rep. Ron Paul has 20 percent. But 35 percent of the roughly 900 polled said they could change their minds.

Santorum spoke to a crowd of about 200 people in Rochester Tuesday morning, and also criticized Romney's health care track record in Massachussetts. Some of the features of a reform package he signed there are similar to those in the federal law that Obama signed.

"A presidential candidate from the Republican side, going up against President Obama, with a failed health care system that he authored in Massachusetts, that is the basis of the health care system which started the tea party movement in this country, it's the basis of the angst and anger among Republican and conservative and ranks beyond conservatives as to the government take over of our lives....is not the candidate we want to nominate."

Romney, meanwhile, campaigned in Colorado, where he's also trying to win over social conservatives ahead of that state's Republican caucuses on Tuesday.

A previous supporter abortion rights, he has struggled to convince them he's conservative enough. In a radio interview, he said he supported the Susan G. Komen Foundation's decision -- later reversed after a massive public outcry -- to strip breast cancer screening funds from Planned Parenthood. And in a rally near Denver, he accused the Obama administration is forcing religious institutions to distribute "abortive pills."

In Minnesota, his campaign co-chair Tim Pawlenty attacked Santorum in a conference call with reporters. The former Minnesota governor and presidential candidate highlighted what he described as Santorum's long history of pork-barrel spending.

"He's held himself out as the perfect or near perfect conservative, when in fact that's not his record. So, we just want to make sure that the rhetoric and the claims and the image that he's trying to present to the conservative base is not a false one," Pawlenty said. Like Santorum, Ron Paul has focused on courting supporters in Minnesota. In St. Cloud, he brought his message of economic populism to an audience that included a large number of college students:

"You introduce this notion that government has power to redistribute wealth. Well, guess what? They do that. It's always meant we're going to help poor people get some wealth. But who gets to redistribute the wealth? The lobbyists. And guess where they redistribute the wealth? From the poor to the rich! It makes no sense."

Paul and Santorum plan more appearances in Minnesota today.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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