The last time we saw former Sen. Rick Santorum (R), his 16-year congressional career was coming to an abrupt and embarrassing end. Bob Casey Jr. beat him statewide by 18 points, 59% to 41%, giving the conservative more time to work with Fox News, and work on Hollywood movie projects.
It appears, however, that the politician who made the “man on dog” comparison famous isn’t quite done with public service. Santorum was expected to run for president in 2008, though an embarrassing defeat made that impossible, but now he’s eyeing a gubernatorial race in 2010.
Say it slowly: Gov. Rick Santorum. Interesting concept, isn’t it?
The former Pennsylvania GOP senator, trounced in his re-election bid last year by seldom-seen Democrat Bob Casey Jr., apparently has grown weary of beating the drums about the ongoing terrorist threat as a senior fellow with the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center.
The American Spectator reported last week that Santorum is seriously mulling a run for governor in 2010, when the race will be wide open. Term limits will force current Gov. Ed Rendell from seeking a third term.
Said one unnamed political adviser in The Spectator item: “Rick is a politician. He loves the competition and the process of running. He’s getting back in and he’s young enough that a gubernatorial run would set him up for greater opportunities politically down the road.”
He’s like a character in a bad horror movie that just won’t go away.
This, apparently, isn’t just idle speculation. Santorum returned to Pennsylvania just a few weeks ago, visiting Lancaster County, according to one local media report, in order to “raise his profile for a potential gubernatorial run.”
Of course, when I say “returned to Pennsylvania,” I mean that literally. Santorum owned property in the state he called home, but he and his family did not live in Pennsylvania at any point in recent years, even during his second term in the Senate. Santorum wasn’t going to win re-election anyway, but Keystone State voters seemed kind of annoyed to have a senator who only visited the state on occasion to campaign.
Indeed, these new rumors about a gubernatorial campaign have brought the questions about Santorum’s residency back to the surface. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported, “[A] Santorum gubernatorial bid is dependent on the Virginia resident being agreeable to actually living in Pennsylvania again. When he was a senator, you may recall, he found that idea abhorrent.”
PennLive was even more direct in its headline: “First he’d have to move back to Pennsylvania.”
Nevertheless, a year ago I thought we wouldn’t have Rick Santorum to kick around anymore. Now, that may no longer be the case.