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WASHINGTON — Fresh off a trio of upset victories, Rick Santorum roared back into the GOP presidential race yesterday and got busy refilling his empty campaign coffers in a hurry.
He raked in $250,000 online overnight Tuesday as votes still were being counted in his stunning trifecta win in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.
The haul brought his two-day fund-raising total to more than $400,000 — just a taste of the cash he needs to battle front-runner Mitt Romney in tough primary contests Feb. 28 in Arizona and Michigan and Super Tuesday on March 6, when 10 states will be in play.
Santorum, a former US senator from Pennsylvania, kept the money train rolling yesterday with campaign stops in Texas.
“We’re doing very, very well raising money,” Santorum said on CNN.
When it comes to fund-raising, Santorum is in an uphill fight. Romney in 2011 raised $56 million to Santorum’s $2.2 million.
But that didn’t stop a newly confident Santorum from tearing into Romney yesterday, calling him “Mr. Big Government,” for his role in enacting health-care laws as Massachusetts governor that became the model for ObamaCare.
“Governor Romney, ‘Mr. Outsider,’ was for government takeover of health care, was for government takeover of the private sector in the Wall Street bailout and was for the government takeover of industry and energy with cap-and-trade,” Santorum said.
“So ‘Mr. Private Sector’ was ‘Mr. Big Government’ when he was out there running.”
Romney answered the new challenge from Santorum by branding him with the same “Washington insider” label he seared onto former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
“Senator Santorum and Speaker Gingrich, they are the very Republicans who acted like Democrats, and when Republicans act like Democrats, they lose,” Romney said in Atlanta.
“Republicans spent too much money, borrowed too much money, earmarked too much, and Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have to be held accountable,” he said.
Santorum vowed to take the fight straight to Romney in Michigan, where Romney was born and his father was governor.
“We think Michigan is a great place for us to plant our flag and talk about jobs and manufacturing and giving opportunities for everybody in America to rise,” Santorum told MSNBC.