Santorum hits campaign restart in Pennsylvania

Republican Rick Santorum is campaigning across Pennsylvania, insisting after a triple loss to rival Mitt Romney that a home state win here will reignite his struggling White House bid. Frontrunner Romney swept contests in Wisconsin, Maryland and the US capital Washington on Tuesday, tightening his grip on the lead in the Republican race to see who will challenge Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 6 election. But Santorum, a former US senator from Pennsylvania who lost his seat in an election debacle in 2006, called on supporters in this picturesque town to help him \"start this campaign anew\" with a win on April 24 that could propel him to further victories in May and blunt Romney\'s efforts to be crowned the nominee. As Santorum kicked off what will be three weeks of intense campaigning in the state, he admitted it was make-or-break for him in Pennsylvania. \"We have to win here... We\'ve got a strong base of support here and we\'re going to work very, very hard,\" he told reporters on Tuesday outside Bob\'s Diner in Carnegie, in western Pennsylvania. Santorum -- a staunch opponent of abortion and gay marriage -- still hopes to rally the party\'s conservative base, which remains suspicious of Romney over his past record as a moderate governor of liberal Massachusetts. Santorum leads in Pennsylvania by over six percentage points, according to an average of recent polls by the RealClearPolitics website, but Romney can afford to lose the state while a loss for Santorum would be devastating. Romney has drawn much of the air out of the Republican nomination battle by steadily widening his delegate lead, and has recently directed attacks, not at party rivals like Santorum or House speaker Newt Gingrich, but at Obama. In a speech in Washington -- before heading to Pennsylvania -- Romney blamed Obama for failing to turn around the US economy quickly enough and creating a \"government-centered society.\" With Romney acting like the presumptive nominee, calls have mounted for Santorum to bow out, but the arch-conservative is doing nothing of the sort. The month of May \"looks very good,\" Santorum said, referring to contests in Indiana, North Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky and Texas -- all in the US Midwest or South, conservative regions where Santorum\'s campaign has gained traction. \"There\'s a movement in Texas to make Texas a winner-take-all state,\" which has 155 delegates at stake, Santorum said. \"You throw those... delegates on our pile and this race becomes a very different race.\" State Senator John Eichelberger introduced Santorum in Hollidaysburg by stressing the candidate\'s conservative credentials on social issues and fiscal restraint, urging Santorum to criticize the president more directly. \"It\'s a new beginning for Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania,\" Eichelberger declared before cheering supporters. \"It\'s time for Rick to get tough, and Rick is going to get real tough,\" he said, as he presented Santorum with a pair of boxing gloves. Santorum has needed no prompting to attack Obama\'s policies. \"We need to draw a clear contrast... whether we want a bottom-up system of building a great and strong economy, based on free people and free enterprise, or whether we\'re somebody who buys into Obama\'s top-down government control,\" he said. Santorum accused Obama of attacking religious freedoms and seeking to undermine gun ownership rights, as the candidate sought to revive a political firestorm that erupted in the 2008 campaign over guns and religion. \"Barack Obama four years ago referred to this area of Pennsylvania, right here, as a place that clings to their guns and their Bibles,\" Santorum told supporters. \"You\'re damn right we do!\" he said, to a loud roar. Obama\'s comments, which went viral in April 2008, were interpreted by many blue-collar voters as a condescending swipe at a vast swathe of Americans. \"You\'re right we cling; we cling to our faith,\" Santorum said. \"We cling to the rights that are God-given, that are guaranteed under our constitution.\" Romney has 655 delegates, well over half the 1,144 needed to win the Republican nomination at the party\'s national convention in August. Santorum has 272 delegates, according to a RealClearPolitics tally, while Gingrich has 140 and congressman Ron Paul has 67.