By Lynn Campbell | IowaPolitics.com
URBANDALE — Prayer would be allowed at graduations, football games and other public school functions, if former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum were president of the United States.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the recently repealed policy that prohibited gays and lesbians from openly serving in the military, would be reinstated.
Same-sex marriage ceremonies would be prohibited on military bases.
And health-care workers would not be forced to distribute the emergency contraception “morning-after pill” as a condition of their employment, if they have religious objections and it goes against their conscience.
“There's more to America than taxes and spending,” Santorum told about 60 people Friday at the kickoff of his Faith, Family and Freedom Tour. “America is a moral enterprise. America is built upon faith and family. Those are the pillars of our society.”
As a celebration of completing his tour of all 99 counties in Iowa, Santorum launched another tour — this one focused on faith, family and freedom. Santorum is one of several social conservatives seeking the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. This latest tour emphasizes the area where he has been the strongest.
To be specific, he whipped out a list of 17 things that he’d do if elected president, from banning federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, to calling on Congress to abolish the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which he called the "poster child" of being a rogue court and overstepping the authority of the judicial branch.
The 9th Circuit includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Guam, and is based in San Francisco. Conservatives widely consider it a liberal court, pointing to how the U.S. Supreme Court this past year overturned the majority of its decisions.
For Pat and Carolyn Haws, of Ankeny, seeing Santorum in person Friday sealed the deal for them. They said they plan to vote for him in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.
“His views are our views,” said Carolyn Haws, 70. “He’s my No. 1. His moral values — we’re very big pro-life people. He doesn’t want government to control everything, and we like that.”
The couple said they also considered supporting Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who has made speeches emphasizing her position against abortion. But they said they believe Santorum is the stronger candidate.
Pat Haws, 72, said Santorum has a little more experience in government than Bachmann. His wife was a little more shy about sharing her reasons.
“She does have family values, which is really good,” Carolyn Haws said of Bachmann. “I hate to say this, but I would vote for her if there wasn’t a man that I liked. But I really prefer a man to be our president. I think it’s more biblical.”
George Heddinger, 77, of West Des Moines, sat in the front row with his wife to listen to Santorum’s speech. He said there’s less doubt about Santorum’s conservatism than with the other GOP presidential candidates.
“I support him 100 percent on all these issues,” Heddinger said. “I think he does stand out. He really talks about what he really feels and about his conservative values, a little bit more than other people. I think (former U.S. House Speaker Newt) Gingrich does a good job, as well. Some of the others, I’m not so sure how conservative they really are.”
Santorum is Iowa’s most frequent visitor among presidential candidates. He has spent at least 65 days in the state this campaign cycle, according to a tally by Democracy in Action, a progressive nonprofit that provides online support to other nonprofits.
Yet polls show Santorum remains at the back of the pack. An Iowa Poll released Sunday showed Santorum in seventh place out of eight candidates, with support from 5 percent of 400 likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers. The poll was taken Oct. 23-26 by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, a public opinion research firm, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
“That’s a mystery to me,” Pat Haws said. “He seems to me, from our perspective, a very good candidate. I just don’t know why he hasn’t caught on, unless as part of the mainstream political environment, he’s swimming upstream … I think Rick’s a fabulous candidate.”
“He has everything that conservatives want,” Carolyn Haws said.
Heddinger said that if more people heard Santorum, he’s sure Santorum’s standing will be “a whole lot better” by the time the caucuses roll around in two months.
Friday’s low-key event, which lacked the formality and size of other candidate functions, was held adjacent to Santorum’s Iowa campaign headquarters here. It included stacks of his book, "It Takes a Family," on one side of the room. A picture of Santorum with his wife and seven kids was featured on the tour banner.
Watch a video of Santorum kick off his Faith, Family and Freedom Tour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFzt8vzRK7A
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iowapolitics/sets/72157628053076616/show/
Listen to Santorum’s speech:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/1009/_Santorum_speech.mp3
See news release for full list of Santorum's proposals:
http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=252314
