Santorum's challenge

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Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has the dubious distinction of being the GOP's most vulnerable incumbent, but all that could change once Democratic voters know more about his pro-life opponent.

Virtually every poll shows Mr. Santorum running 10 to 15 points behind State Treasurer Robert Casey Jr., who is running a stealth, under-the-radar centrist campaign and is known more, in some circles, for his anti-abortion and gun-rights views than for anything else.

So far, Mr. Santorum has failed in trying to smoke out Mr. Casey on the issues, frustrating the two-term conservative senator, whose weak re-elect numbers have been frozen for months. Like Tom Dewey in the legendary 1948 presidential election, Mr. Casey is betting the path to victory is to say as little as possible about what he thinks. In his case, though, it seems to be working for him.

But the big question is, how Mr. Casey's pro-life views, once fully known by the electorate, will play with the state's politically potent pro-choice voters, and whether an independent abortion-rights candidate can draw enough Democratic votes away from Mr. Casey to help Mr. Santorum eke out a victory in a divided three-way race.

Pro-choice leaders like former NARAL President Kate Michelman has whipped up opposition to Mr. Casey in her home state and for a while looked as if she would challenge him as an independent. She has indicated she will not run, but one of Mr. Casey's pro-choice opponents could.

"If there were a third-party candidate on the ballot who is pro-choice, that candidate could draw heavily from Casey backers among liberal Democrats, enough to make it a close race," said Clay Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, whose surveys show Mr. Casey is very vulnerable on the issue among his party's base.

Although both Mr. Santorum and Mr. Casey are avowedly pro-life, the big difference is that the senator's position is strongly supported by the GOP's base, while Mr. Casey's party is overwhelmingly pro-choice in a state that has some of the most conservative abortion laws in the nation.

Strange as it may seem, most Democrats still don't know much about Casey's pro-life views -- including his opposition to federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research -- but when they do, his support drops. A Quinnipiac poll found that after voters were told he was pro-life, many Democrats reacted negatively to his candidacy, which could spell trouble for him when the race heats up later this year.

"A significant number of Casey supporters still do not know that Casey is opposed to abortion. There are a significant number of pro-choice voters whose entire opinion swings on that one issue, and, unlike other single-issue voters, they will use their vote on just that one issue, even if it hurts the candidate they are otherwise philosophically attuned with," Richards told me.

There are other reasons pro-choice activists are angry with Mr. Casey, which could further complicate his campaign.