WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney has pulled out the big guns for the must-win Michigan primary next Tuesday, unloading nearly $1 million this week alone for TV attack ads targeting rival Rick Santorum.
The spending spree — including a total $3.2 million in ad buys by a pro-Romney super PAC — has already paid dividends for Romney in Michigan’s race for the GOP presidential nomination.
The former Massachusetts governor has pulled ahead of Santorum, 32-30 percent, in the latest Michigan poll by Mitchell Research/Rosetta Stone.
A week ago, the same poll showed Santorum with a 9-point advantage.
Romney long has had a fund-raising advantage. But his campaign has been spending it fast, shelling out $19 million while taking in $6.5 million last month, federal filings show.
That’s not sustainable, and it didn’t stop Santorum from scoring big primary wins in January.
Romney desperately needs to win in Michigan, the state where he grew up and his father, George, was a popular three-term governor.
The former Massachusetts governor stepped up his attacks on Santorum yesterday during a town-hall meeting in Michigan’s Shelby Township where he argued that he should be the favorite among Tea Party voters.
“I think the Tea Party would find it very interesting that Rick Santorum voted to raise the debt ceiling five times without getting compensating reductions in spending,” Romney said.
A loss in Michigan would severely hobble Romney’s run heading into crucial Super Tuesday contests on March 6.
“Romney is spending twice as much on media as Santorum, and it would seem as though it is having an impact,” said pollster Steve Mitchell. “The strong negative ads being run in Michigan defining Santorum as a big spender have had a huge impact.”
Romney used the same carpet-bombing strategy to obliterate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Florida last month.
Santorum tried to rehabilitate his fiscal image yesterday at a rally in Arizona, which is also holding its primary Tuesday, insisting he was an “outsider” in Washington.
“You see all these commercials, ‘Rick Santorum is a big spender,’ but they never once mention . . . I voted for smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation — the things that we need desperately in this country,” he said.
A new CNN/Time poll yesterday showed Romney up 36-32 percent against Santorum in Arizona.
Santorum, a former US senator from Pennsylvania, became the front-runner nationally and in several key states after his stunning victories on Feb. 7 in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.
Santorum, known for his conservative views, came under fresh scrutiny yesterday for a 2008 speech in which he warned that “Satan has his sights on the United States of America!”
The Santorum campaign did not immediately comment on the speech.