WASHINGTON — Rick Santorum dismissed on Sunday Mitt Romney’s victories in the Maine caucuses and the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll, and suggested that Romney’s campaign may have paid for some of his votes at CPAC.
Romney won Maine’s caucuses with 39 percent of the vote on Saturday, followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 36 percent. Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who did not campaign in Maine, received 18 percent and six percent respectively.
Romney’s Maine victory was announced just hours after he also won the presidential straw poll at CPAC, a major gathering of conservative activists, with 38 percent of the vote — edging out Santorum’s second place finish with 31 percent.
“That was not a place we were going to compete,” Santorum said of Maine on ABC’s “This Week.” “I’m out here in California, and we’ll be in Washington, and Idaho, North Dakota, Michigan. We’re going to spend a lot of time in Michigan and Arizona, and those are up next. And that’s where we’re really been focusing on.”
As for Romney’s CPAC victory, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Santorum suggested that Romney’s campaign may have used campaign cash to secure some of those votes.
Santorum argued that it was “standard procedure at all straw polls” for candidates to buy tickets for their supporters, who are bused in to vote.
“Campaigns recruit people, provide free tickets, they come and vote and then leave,” he said.
“We didn’t do that, we don’t do that,” Santorum said. “I don’t try to rig straw polls.”
When asked by CNN host Candy Crowley if Romney rigged CPAC, Santorum demurred.
“You have to talk to the Romney campaign about how many tickets they bought, we’ve heard all sorts of things,” he said.
Following Santorum’s surprise sweep of contests in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri on Tuesday, the former Pennsylvania senator predicted he would do “reasonably well” in the Arizona and Michigan primaries on Feb. 28.
Santorum also told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he plans to release his tax returns within the next couple days, and possibly as early as Monday.