Club for Growth President Chris Chocola: “Governor Romney is right: Arlen Specter was the 60th vote for ObamaCare and Rick Santorum helped put him there.” 

Washington, DC – In one of the more interesting twists in the Republican presidential debate in Arizona, the issue arose of Senator Rick Santorum’s support for arch-RINO Senator Arlen Specter in 2004 over fiscal conservative and then-Congressman Pat Toomey.

As was noted in the Club for Growth’s White Paper on Sen. Santorum’s record, Santorum aggressively campaigned for Specter, even cutting a deceptive television advertisement on his behalf, calling him "with us on the votes that matter." Santorum’s support helped Specter defeat Toomey by less than two percent of the vote.

In the Senate term that Santorum helped Specter win, Specter voted in favor of the Obama stimulus bill. (RCV #64, 2009) Specter then became a member of the Democratic Party and cast the critical 60th vote in favor of ObamaCare. (RCV #396, 2009)

“Governor Romney is right: Arlen Specter was the 60th vote for ObamaCare and Rick Santorum helped put him there,” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola.  “Rick Santorum jettisoned conservative principles to support Arlen Specter when the Club for Growth PAC and much of the conservative movement was supporting Pat Toomey.  Now, he is pretending that his politically expedient support for Specter was based on principle when everyone in the Senate knew that Arlen Specter was a liberal, big-government Republican. Elections have consequences, and if Rick Santorum wants to lamely take credit for Specter’s judicial votes, then Santorum should both take responsibility and apologize for enabling Specter’s critical role in the passage of ObamaCare.”