At tonight’s GOP presidential debate, Howard Kurtz says Rick Santorum will be questioned about his recent statements reviving the culture wars.

“When Santorum takes the stage Wednesday night, the glare of the spotlight will be unusually harsh. Despite complaints from his campaign about distorted media coverage, he is the one who has raised every one of these issues, along with birth control, in recent days. Reporters weren’t peppering him with questions about home schooling or amniocentesis. He’s the guy who put these subjects in play.”

Bottom line: “He didn’t wade into these controversies by accident. His team must believe these hot-button positions will build support among very conservative and evangelical primary voters — and win their hearts in a way that Romney cannot. The trick is to avoid alienating more moderate voters in the process. Wednesday’s debate will provide a classic test.”

Buddy Roemer will end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination and announce he’ll seek to run as an independent candidate.

Said Roemer in a statement: “I have decided to take my campaign directly to the American people by declaring my candidacy for Americans Elect. Also, after many discussions with The Reform Party, I am excited to announce my intentions of seeking their nomination.”

“All along I have felt that Mitt Romney would probably be the strongest general election challenger to the president. I’m not sure that’s true any longer. I think Rick Santorum may emerge as the stronger general election candidate.”

— Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D), quoted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) “is backing off his unconditional support for a bill requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion,” the Washington Post reports.

Lawmakers and the governor’s staff were scheduled to meet in an effort to “strike a compromise after learning that some ultrasounds could be more invasive than first thought… Many of the bill’s supporters were apparently unaware of how invasive the procedure could be.”

McDonnell is often mentioned as a possible Republican vice presidential candidate.

A new Marquette Law School Poll in Wisconsin finds Rick Santorum leading the GOP presidential field with 34%, followed by Mitt Romney at 18%, Ron Paul at 17% and Newt Gingrich at 12%.

The Wisconsin GOP primary, which allows any registered voter to participate, is scheduled for April 3.

In general election match ups, President Obama leads each of his GOP rivals by double digits.

A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds nterest in the Republican presidential race is slipping: Just 40% of Republicans say they have a great deal of interest in following the contest, compared with 48% in December.

Key findings: Only 23% are strongly satisfied with the field and 40% said they are dissatisfied with the candidates running.

Former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour (R) tells National Review that a contested Republican convention is a possible, though “highly unlikely,” scenario.

Said Barbour: “There is an outside chance, unlikely though it is, that you could get to the convention and have three or four candidates still in the race, none of them close to having a majority of delegates. But the idea that there would be a contested convention, where you actually arrive in Tampa and nobody has the votes, would defy decades of history.”

He added: “The operative word is ‘could.’ Could? Yeah. Likely? No.”

Meanwhile, a new Quinnipiac poll finds that if none of the
candidates currently running wins enough delegates to earn the
nomination, Republicans prefer New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over Sarah
Palin, Jeb Bush and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.

In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times,
failed Florida gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink (D) floated the
possibility of a rematch against the man who defeated her, Florida Gov.
Rick Scott (R), who remains unpopular in the state.

Said
Sink: “Of course, I’ve thought about it. Many, many people are
encouraging me. Even strangers who I’ve never met before would like to
see me back.

A new NBC News-Marist poll finds Mitt Romney edging Rick Santorum in the GOP presidential race, 37% to 35%, followed by Ron Paul at 13% and Newt Gingrich 8%.

A new NBC News-Marist poll in Arizona finds Mitt Romney leading the GOP primary with 43%
of likely voters, followed by Rick Santorum at 27%, Newt Gingrich at 16% and Ron Paul at 11%.

A new Quinnipiac poll finds Rick Santorum leads the Republican presidential field with 35% among Republican voters, followed by Mitt Romney at 26%, Newt Gingrich at 14% and Ron Paul at 11%.

Santorum leads Romney in a head-to-head match up by 50% to 37%.

Said pollster Peter Brown: “Santorum’s lead among Republican voters and GOP-leaning independents is built on the votes of Republican men, Tea Party supporters and white evangelical Christians.”

A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds Santorum at 33%, Romney at 32%, Gingrich at 15% and Paul at 15%.

An analysis by the Boston Globe
shows that President Obama “did not raise as much money from supporters
last month as he did during January 2008 in his first campaign for the
White House,” and he is also “using up cash at a far greater rate than
the last incumbent to seek reelection, George W. Bush in 2004.”

The
numbers: “Contributions to Obama and the Democratic National Committee
combined were down 30 percent last month compared with January four
years ago. Together they raised $29.1 million in January. That is down
from $41.7 million in January 2008… The Obama campaign spent $17.2
million last month, leaving $76 million cash on hand. Eight years ago,
Bush raised $12.9 million in January, spent $7.6 million, and had $104.4
million in the bank heading into February… But the campaign also had a
payroll of nearly 360 employees in the last quarter of 2011, about 200
more than Bush-Cheney during a comparable period eight years earlier.”

Mitt Romney attacked President Obama’s “secular agenda” during a town hall in Michigan, ABC News reports.

Said Romney: “You expect the president of the United States to be sensitive to that freedom and protect it and, unfortunately, perhaps because of the people the president hangs around with, and their agenda, their secular agenda, they have fought against religion.”

Washington Post: “Romney rarely ventures into social issues in his campaign speeches, but people participating in a town hall-style meeting one week before the Michigan primary asked how he would protect religious liberty.”

Donald Trump told CNBC he would “seriously, seriously” consider jumping into the White House race if Rick Santorum wins the GOP presidential nomination.

Said Trump: “Honestly, if Santorum got it, I would seriously, seriously consider it. We need someone that’s really going to be great. This is the most important election in my opinion that this country has ever had. Santorum is not the right person.”

He added that he is a “free agent” after his Apprentice show ends its season on May 16.

[Read more…]

TPM looks at the campaign finance reports and finds that nearly 90% of Mitt Romney’s total haul is from contributions greater than $200.

“By contrast, only around 40% of Obama’s donations are from individuals who have given more than $200 total and his smaller contributors alone raised more money in total than Romney’s entire fundraising operation. For the rest of the Republican field, the ratio is somewhere closer to 50-50.”

A Minnesota judicial panel released new political district lines that place Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Betty McCollum (D-MN) into the same congressional district, the Minnesota Star Tribune reports.

However, Bachmann said that “she will run for her old 6th district seat even though newly drawn congressional maps put her home in the 4th District, currently represented by McCollum… Members of Congress don’t have to live in the district they represent, so Bachmann is free to run wherever she likes in Minnesota. She said she has not yet decided if she will move her home into the new district.”

Interestingly, Bachmann claimed she went to college in the new 6th district but DailyKos points out her college is actually in the state’s 1st congressional district.