The LuLac Edition #1935, February 7th, 2012

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum.

RICK ON THE MOVE

The Mitt Romney Express might have run into a bump tonight courtesy of former Senator Rick Santorum. Santorum is doing well in this week’s midwest state caucus elections. Santorum appears poised for a campaign boost with a strong showing in two of Tuesday's nominating caucuses. The former Pennsylvania salon has a solid initial lead in Minnesota, earning 43 percent of the vote with about six percent of precincts reporting. And his early lead in Missouri is even greater at 54 percent with nearly a quarter of the votes counted. Mitt Romney, who had been hoping to solidify his front-runner status in Tuesday's contests, is more than 20 points behind Santorum in Missouri and lagging in third place in Minnesota. The former Massachusetts governor may be helped by voters in Colorado, however, where Tuesday's caucus results have not yet been posted. Romney won the state by a large margin when he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and was expected to win again Tuesday. A total of 70 delegates are up for grabs in the Colorado and Minnesota, although they will be awarded later at district and state conventions. Missouri's primary is non-binding, with no delegates at stake.
Santorum can make an inroad as the true conservative in the race by doing the following¨
1. Promote himself as the viable, sensible conservative with an electoral record of success.
2. Talk more about his ethnic roots and the way he was brought up.
3. Begin to talk like Mitt Romney in terms of President Obama. Santorum has to make the case that he can compete against President Obama. By doing this, in effect taking the Romney general election strategy, he can position himself as the logical conservative alternative to Gingrich. Gingrich is like a man without a country in his own party. Santorum needs to concentrate on competing with Romney for delegates and eliminating Gingrich completely as the conservative choice.

CORBETT’S BUDGET

Governor Tom Corbett announced his budget today and it holds the line on taxes. But his cuts to education make it most likely that school districts will raise taxes in order to fund local education. Corbett is cutting transportation, social services as well as welfare programs that will require people to try to find work. About $320 million in welfare savings would come from ending state cash assistance grants for 60,000 people and establishing minimum work requirements for an estimated 30,000 Corbett also wants to combine 7 Human Resources components dealing with welfare, child care, mental health, homeless, drug and alcohol, behavioral health and intellectual disabilities. Corbett also will let go of 600 state employees. The budget is less than 1% of last year. This is the second budget in a row where more money has not been spent which dovetails with Corbett’s campaign for Governor.
The GOP in Harrisburg is supporting the plan while the House and Senate Democrats are voicing opposition to it. These cuts were being made without the benefit of any tax revenue from the gas drilling industry. However that changed today when The Pennsylvania Senate has voted to impose a fee on natural-gas drilling in Pennsylvania and expand regulations for the booming industry.
The Senate on voted 31-to-19 to approve a bill that would fund road work and environmental clean-ups and give local governments the power to decide if the fee would be imposed on their local wells.
Democrats call it a giveaway to energy companies and say its environmental standards are too weak. The fee is projected by its authors to raise $180 million from the industry in the first year, with the amount rising in ensuing years as more Marcellus Shale wells are drilled. There are some Democrats who feel that money should be freed up for social service programs but given today's budget unveiling and cuts, that doesn't appear likely.