Rick Santorum goes after conservative evangelicals in Georgia

The clash among Republican presidential candidates over social issues shifted Thursday to the Deep South as Rick Santorum tried to undercut rival Newt Gingrich’s support among conservative evangelicals in Georgia, a must-win state for the former House speaker.

Santorum also tore into front-runner Mitt Romney over his latest remarks on birth control.

The rhetorical assault on his two leading opponents was part of the former Pennsylvania senator’s full-bore “family values” pitch to Republicans at two stops in northern Georgia, the state that will deliver the biggest cache of delegates during a nationwide flurry of contests Tuesday.

“Unlike anybody else in this race, I’ve led the charge,” Santorum told a crowd in the council chambers at City Hall in Dalton. “It’s one thing to be pro-life, pro-family, pro-marriage, taking on the issues of faith and freedom in our country, the core values of life. It’s one thing to vote that way. It’s another thing to stand up and fight and lead on those issues.”

“That’s right,” a man in the audience called out.

“I’ve led,” Santorum continued, sparking a burst of applause.

The sparring over contraception, abortion and other topics dear to the religious right comes as more and more Republicans are fretting about the danger of alienating swing voters in the fall campaign against President Obama. The Georgia contest is one of a series of upcoming red-state primaries that are certain to keep social issues prominent.

Romney ignited a new controversy Wednesday by saying he opposed a Senate measure that would allow employers to limit insurance coverage of birth control if they have moral objections, only to reverse himself later, citing a misunderstanding. The stumble by the former Massachusetts governor gave an opening to Santorum, who said it offered “insight into what’s in the gut of Gov. Romney.”

Romney’s “knee-jerk reaction was, ‘No. I can’t be for that,’” Santorum told a crowd at a sparsely attended airport hangar rally in Chamblee, Ga., near Atlanta.

“After his consultants talked to him, and then he came back, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘I didn’t understand the question,’” Santorum said. “Well, maybe he did, and maybe he didn’t.”

His voice rising, Santorum continued: “I tell you, if I was asked a question like that, my gut reaction would be, always — my gut reaction would be, you stand for the First Amendment! You stand for freedom of religion!”

His attack drew loud applause, along with a scathing reaction by email from Romney spokesman Ryan Williams.

“Rick Santorum has lost all credibility with conservatives by demonstrating that he is a two-faced Washington insider who will do and say anything to win an election,” Williams said.

Romney was far from the South on Thursday, campaigning in Fargo, N.D., and Idaho Falls, Idaho, both Super Tuesday states. He did not mention his Republican rivals while in Fargo; instead he went after President Obama, accusing him of standing in the way of jobs that pay well, and of using his energy policies to reward campaign donors in industries like wind and solar.

Romney also received good news from the last voting state — Michigan, which awarded him 16 delegates to Santorum’s 14. The Santorum camp had argued for an even split in the state, which Romney won by about 3 percentage points.

As for Gingrich, he has been playing down his conservative stands on social issues in three days of campaigning this week in Georgia, a state he represented in Congress for 20 years. Gingrich has focused instead on his plan to reduce gasoline prices by spurring new domestic energy production.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Gingrich criticized Santorum for supporting “big labor” in the Senate. Santorum has said he backed increases in the minimum wage and other union-supported measures because of the strong presence of organized labor in his home state.

In national polls of Republicans, Santorum’s base of evangelicals has vaulted him well ahead of Gingrich. Nonetheless, Gingrich is counting on the support of religious conservatives to carry him to victory in Georgia, a win that he badly needs in order to sustain his candidacy.

For Santorum, even a strong second-place finish behind Gingrich in Georgia could produce a substantial trove of delegates. In his quest to get them, his emphasis Thursday was ideological purity.

“You can change this race,” he told the crowd in Dalton, where Gingrich had held a rally less than 48 hours earlier. “You can launch a candidate who shares your values — has fire in the belly.”

With his oldest daughter, Elizabeth, at his side, Santorum reminded the audience — as he did later in Chamblee — that he and his wife had home-schooled their seven children.

“It’s a great sacrifice,” he said, “that my wife Karen and I have made to try to give what we think is the best possible opportunity for our children to be successful, not just economically, but in a whole lot of other areas that we think are important — virtue and character and spirituality.”

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

paul.west@latimes.com

Times staff writer Maeve Reston contributed to this report from Fargo, N.D.