Meanwhile, Romney and his allies are vastly outspending Santorum on Michigan's airwaves, including with ads attacking the former Pennsylvania senator for voting to increase the federal debt ceiling. Local Romney supporters also held a conference before Santorum's speech to criticize his support in Congress for pork-barrel spending.
The underfunded Santorum defended himself, saying during his speech that he was "the most conservative senator by far based on the state I represented and the spending record I had."
Though unable to match Romney on the air in Michigan, Santorum is airing one ad featuring a gun-toting Romney impersonator shooting mud at a cardboard cutout of Santorum. An announcer says Romney's "negative attack machine" is on "full throttle" and accuses Romney and groups that support him of "brutally attacking fellow Republicans."
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Charles Babington in Farmington Hills, Mich., contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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