Former Pa. Senator Rick Santorum, who announced his run for president June 6, is admittedly a long-shot to win the nomination and would likely lose a general election to Barack Obama. A run for the top spot, though, could be enough to earn him a consolation prize in the form of a vice presidential candidacy.

Santorum has long positioned himself as a very conservative and often polarizing figure and that could hurt him if moderate Republicans make up a healthy portion of the primary voters. Santorum, however will be competing against better-known Conservatives such as Sarah Palin, Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann, who has also formally announced for the presidency during the second GOP presidential debate. On the other hand, primary voters might decide to go with the most electable candidate such as Mitt Romney or even Rudy Giuliani who could appeal to more moderate voters.

Meanwhile pundits have begun a narrative that Santorum is a willing attack dog figure even toward other conservatives. While his obvious goal is the White House, Santorum might ultimately have to settle for the vice presidential nominee to a more moderate Republican. The vice presidential candidate can serve as a political attack dog, usually freeing the top of the ticket from most of the mudslinging. This dynamic was particularly pronounced in 2008 with both Palin and Joe Biden taking to that role. Biden also ran for president in 2008 and pulled almost no support.

Another consideration for the GOP is Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes. Though that is down from 21 in 2008 due to the new census numbers, Pennsylvania is still tied for fifth (with Illinois) for most electoral votes. The Harrisburg Patriot News noted that the parties should be very focused on the state because independent and centrist voters make Pennsylvania among the largest of the swing states. Of the others, California, New York and Illinois with their large urban populations tend to be solidly Democratic while Texas remains solidly Republican. Only Florida, with 29 electoral votes, has been a larger swing state. Whereas Pennsylvania leans Democratic, Florida tends to lean Republican.

With so many large states in the solid-Democratic and lean-Democratic column, Republicans should be looking for some edge here. Biden’s roots in Scranton arguably helped Obama win Pennsylvania by ten points in 2008. Santorum might be able to counter that dynamic. Traditionally, vice presidential candidates were selected with their home state in mind and candidates from swing states were expected to deliver their home state.

Admittedly this dynamic changed in 2000 with the selection of Dick Cheney from the solidly red state of Wyoming. Cheney, who essentially selected himself for the post, offered ideological rather than geographic supplement to the campaign. In 2008, neither Biden nor Palin were from swing states and rather took the ideological attack dog role. For his part, Biden brought decades of legislative experience and foreign policy expertise while Palin brought conservative credentials and became the first woman to seek the vice presidency for the GOP. In spite of a propensity for verbal gaffes, neither Biden nor Palin back down from political fights. Santorum could serve in a similar role for the GOP in 2012.

So would Santorum offer both ideological and geographic supplements to a more moderate presidential candidate? His conservative credentials are impeccable and he is a darling of the Tea Party movement. One important criticism of the McCain-Palin ticket was that Palin was too inexperienced and too ideological to be president. This was compounded by McCain’s age and health problems. If the Republicans nominate a younger and healthier candidate – and so far all of them fit that bill – Santorum may be acceptable to voters, especially with his 12 years of Senate experience.

As for geographic balance, Pennsylvanians have long accepted that our track record of nominating presidents ranks among the worst in the nation among states that have produced presidents. As for Vice Presidents, Pennsylvania has only produced one of those, too. George M. Dallas served under James K. Polk and did indeed win Pennsylvania in 1844.

Still, that is no guarantee that Santorum carries the Keystone state for the Republicans. On one hand, Pennsylvania voters did send Pat Toomey, a rather similar candidate, to the senate in 2010. On the other hand, Santorum lost his 2006 reelection bid by 18 points. Moreover, Santorum’s Pennsylvania credentials may be tarnished from the controversy that developed in 2004 concerning his state residency status and whether the Penn Hills School District had to pay the tuition when the Santorums enrolled their children in cyber-charter school. Santorum was raised in Butler, Pa. and attended Penn State, Pitt and Dickinson for various degrees. He still maintains a residence in Penn Hills as well as a home in northern Virginia, close to his work in Washington DC.

Meanwhile, Biden was known as Pennsylvania’s third senator. While Biden represented Delaware, he always had the interests of his native state in mind. The 2008 Obama campaign cast Biden as a working-class Scranton native, a narrative that won over a sizable number of northeastern Pennsylvania voters. The 2012 Obama campaign will presumably run with the same messaging while potentially painting Santorum as something of an absentee senator.

Obviously, eight months out from the first ballots being cast in the Iowa caucuses might as well be an eternity in politics. At the moment, however, Santorum seems like a long shot for the presidential nomination and a dark horse at best for the vice presidential nod. However, if that would happen, expect the bottom of the ticket to serve as important proxies in the battle for Pennsylvania with Biden appealing to the base voters and NEPA working class and Santorum playing to the conservative rural voters and Pittsburgh area Republicans.

The announcement is not particularly surprising. Santorum did participate in the first Republican presidential debate with former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and pizza magnate Herman Cain. That debate has been criticized for lacking the presumptive front runners including Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Mitch Daniels and Mike Huckabee (though Huckabee and Daniels have since announced that they won’t be running). Santorum did win a post debate straw poll among South Carolina Republicans when he was the only candidate to show up for it.

Fox News also suspended Santorum’s contract as a contributor to the network due to the former senator’s political aspirations. According to the Christian Science Monitor, Santorum made less than $100,000 for his Fox News gig while Palin and Gingrich each pull down about $1 million, though Gingrich has also been suspended and Palin would likely be suspended as well if she announces a candidacy.

Santorum has been one of the most active candidates on the ground so far in the 2012 season. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that he has filled out the top campaign spots in early primary states. CNN reported that Santorum has visited each of the first three primary states – Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina – more than a dozen times already.

Santorum faces an uphill battle for the nomination. A recent Gallup poll has him pulling in just two percent support among 11 candidates and only 47 percent name recognition among Republican voters. He also ranks on the low end of Gallup’s positive intensity score scale, with measures how enthusiastic his supporters are about his candidacy. On that scale, he only beats Johnson and former Utah governor and ambassador to China John Huntsman. His numbers are low enough that Gallup did not include Santorum in their expanded analysis of the field.

Additionally, polling and analysis by Zogby still puts Santorum at about three percent in a field of 13, placing him near the bottom of the field and tied with Gingrich, who has seen his poll numbers take a nosedive. The one silver lining for Santorum is that he has a respectable 64 percent support among self-described conservatives in a match up against Barack Obama. Still, he trails Palin, Cain, Pawlenty and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in that category.

Another problem that Santorum faces will be money. The Center for Responsive Politics noted that Santorum was among the least wealthy senators, ranking 60^th at the time, and has an estimated personal wealth of between $500,000 and $1.8 million. In contrast, Romney may be able to use millions of dollars of his own money in a campaign. During his failed run for the 2008 GOP nomination, Romney spent more than $35 million of his own money along with $88.5 million from other sources. Presumably, that spending did not put much of a dent in the former Massachusetts Governor’s personal fortune of about $250 million. Romney still only won ten primaries and 148 delegates in 2008 before dropping out after Super Tuesday.

On the other hand, Santorum does have an active political action committee (PAC) called America’s Foundation based in Downington. America’s Foundation  raised about $2.8 million, ranking it seventh among PACs and contributed generously to Republican candidates during the 2010 midterms. That PAC would be particularly useful in any fund-raising efforts.

Still, even if Santorum manages to land the nomination, he faces an uphill battle even in his home state. Historically, Keystone State Democrats come out in presidential years and Pennsylvania has swung Democratic for five consecutive presidential elections. In the three previous elections, the state voted Republican, though the Democrats severely underperformed in 1980, 1984 and 1988. Democrats hold a registration edge of about one million voters.

Republicans have been stronger in midterm elections, though Republican Pat Toomey just barely won in 2010 and Santorum himself got trounced by 18 points in 2006. Recent polling shows Santorum would get defeated even more soundly in a hypothetical rematch with Bob Casey Jr. Casey will be on the ballot with Obama in 2012.

Polling from late April, prior to Obama’s popularity surge in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden – and probably the best current predictor of a 2012 election – showed the president’s reelect numbers slipping in Pennsylvania, though he only loses to a generic Republican. Another early April poll from Democratic pollsters Public Policy Polling showed Obama narrowly defeating most Republican candidates, though Romney had a one point edge. The same poll shows Obama beating Santorum by only two points. Both results are within the poll’s margin of error, though the poll was an automated telephone poll, so the number should be taken with a grain of salt. In contrast, an early March poll conducted by Muhlenburg College and the Allentown Morning Call showed Obama only really struggling with an unnamed Republican challenger in Pennsylvania and easily defeating Palin, Romney and Huckabee. Again, those numbers should be used with caution as the poll only included 395 respondents and has a rather high margin of error of 4.5 percent.

But Lentz, a two-term state Representative, was briefly a Santorum supporter himself—at least financially.

Lentz gave Santorum’s campaign $250 in the summer of 2000, according to campaign finance data. While only a drop in the bucket of the millions that Santorum raised that cycle, the donation came just three months before Democratic nominee Ron Klink faced him at the polls.

The contribution was pointed out to pa2010.com by the Meehan campaign.

Lentz had not yet entered politics back then, and was in private practice as a lawyer between his Army deployments.

“As a favor to a friend, Bryan gave $250 in 2000 to Rick Santorum,” Lentz campaign manager Kevin McTigue said. “There is a big difference between supporting Rick Santorum’s campaign with $250 as a favor and supporting Rick Santorums’ far-right agenda like Pat Meehan does.  If Pat would attend any of the Town Hall meetings Bryan’s been hosting, Bryan would be happy to discuss with him the difference.”

Santorum is the only Republican to which Lentz has ever donated, according to campaign finance data. He gave $400 to Bob Casey a year before Casey unseated Santorum, and has also donated money to Chris Carney and the late Ted Kennedy. Meehan, for his part, appears to have made only one campaign contribution over the last decade: a $250 donation to Arlen Specter’s campaign in 2008, a few months before the longtime senator switched parties.

Lentz’s contribution to Santorum was briefly an issue of contention for Delaware County Democrats when Lentz was first running for Congress in 2006, but never rose beyond the chattering class and comments on the blogosphere. Lentz eventually stepped aside for Joe Sestak.

Correction: The headline for this article originally misstated the year in which Lentz contributed to Santorum’s campaign. As the article noted, it was 2000, not 2006.

Marino is one of three candidates vying for the GOP nomination in the 10th Congressional District, along with Snyder County Commissioner Malcolm Derk and Luzerne County chiropractor David Madeira. Party leadership has allowed the primary to play out mostly unfettered, and much of the high-level GOP support has come to Marino.

“I have known Tom Marino since the early 1990′s and have always admired his honesty, integrity, and commitment to conservative principals,” Santorum said in a statement. “He earned a reputation as a tough-as-nails prosecutor during his tenure as Lycoming County District Attorney and United States Attorney for the Middle District. I am proud to support his campaign for United States Congress.”

The race in incumbent Democrat Chris Carney’s district is currently ranked No. 7 on the pa2010.com Congressional Power Rankings.

The latest TV spot by Democrat Joe Sestak’s Senate campaign highlights former President George W. Bush’s support for Senator Arlen Specter during the 2004 campaign, as well Specter’s support for vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008. It also twice plays a clip of Specter saying that “my change in party will enable me to be reelected.”

The 30-second spot aired Wednesday night on CBS in the Philadelphia media market, appearing on “CSI: NY” and later on the “Late Show with David Letterman.” Sestak has harped on Specter’s party-switch throughout the campaign, but the new ad is the first time he’s taken that message to the airwaves.

“For 45 years, Arlen Specter has been a Republican politician,” a narrator says.

The footage of Bush endorsing Specter—”I can count on this man,” Bush says with former Senator Rick Santorum at his side—is taken from one of Specter’s own 2004 campaign ads.

The ad closes with a shot of Specter standing with Palin. “Arlen Specter switched parties to save one job,” the narrator says. “His, not yours.”

UPDATE: A higher-quality version of the ad has been embedded below. In a statement, Sestak spokesman Jonathon Dworkin says that “this election is about who we can count on to represent our values on the day after the election and for the next six years. Many Democrats are skeptical of why Arlen Specter switched parties after enthusiastically touting the endorsement of President Bush. But there is no way Senator Specter can make his motives more clear than he does in his own words.”

“Dan Onorato is the leader Pennsylvania needs,” Guzzo said in a statement. “He knows firsthand how to run an efficient government including the crucial responsibility of ensuring public safety.”

The others mayors supporting Onorato Tuesday were Arnold’s John Campbell; Brackenridge’s Tom Kish; Lower Burrell’s Don Kinosz; Plum’s Rich Hrivnak; and Tarentum’s Carl Magnetta.

Meanwhile, there’s nothing like a month-old poll to shake things up a bit. Our friends at Early Returns 2.0 reported on a GOP poll from mid-March, which showed Republican Tim Burns edging Democrat Mark Critz by four points in the 12th Congressional District special election. A Democratic operative clearly saw it as a Republican leak, writing in an e-mail to pa2010.com Central: “What do you do when you’re campaign is struggling with fundraising and you’re not on TV? You release a month old poll!” Actually, our intel says that Burns is on TV, but now we’ll have to double-check that.

Over in the central part of the state, 17th District Republican front-runner Dave Argall is raising money in the hope of unseating Congressman Tim Holden (D-17). PoliticsPA reports that the state Senator has racked up $125,000 so far. He’s got about $100,000 in cash on hand.

And lastly, Joe Sestak might not be advertising yet in the Democratic Senate primary, but that isn’t stopping his campaign’s continuing series of “The Real Specter” Web ads. The latest hits on the controversey surrounding Rick Santorum’s claim that he endorsed Arlen Specter in 2004 only becasue Specter pledged his future support for Bush administration judicial nominees.

Check out the ad below.

Sestak pounced over the weekend after Rick Santorum made the claim, and although Sestak didn’t mention the latest controversy during his debate with Republican Pat Toomey here Sunday night, he was quick to bring it up when talking to reporters after.

“I believe that is beyond the pale, even for normal politics,” he said.

Sestak said he had no reason to doubt Santorum, whom he called a principled man, albeit one with whom he disagrees strongly on the issues.

Toomey, for his part, left the criticism to Sestak, but did say he believed Santorum.

“I have no reason in the world to think that Rick Santorum is not telling the truth,” Toomey said, “but I was not privy to that conversation.”

In a statement Saturday, Specter said that “I never made any promise to Senator Santorum about this. I would never make a promise on a vote like this under any circumstances.”

Appearing at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Santorum offered up a mea culpa for endorsing Specter in his tough 2004 race—and said he did so because Specter promised to back whoever President George W. Bush nominated to the Supreme Court.

“The reason I endorsed Arlen Specter is because we were going to have two Supreme Court nominees coming up,” Santorum said, according to The Washington Post. “I got a commitment from Arlen Specter that no matter who George W. Bush would nominate, he would support that nominee.”

That prompted an almost immediate attack from Specter’s primary rival Joe Sestak, a denial by Specter himself and, later, Santorum sticking by the claim.

“Rick Santorum’s stunning confirmation that Arlen Specter sold his influence as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee for a political endorsement should be extremely troubling to Pennsylvanians,” Sestak said in a statement Saturday evening. “There are few people in this nation who have a greater impact on the lives of the American people than the men and women who serve lifetime appointments on the Supreme Court. For Arlen Specter to take his marching orders from Rick Santorum and George W. Bush and pledge to support any nominee—no matter how partisan, no matter how unqualified—in order to win an election is a stunning betrayal of his duty as a public servant.”

Just an hour later, Specter issued his denial.

“I never made any promise to Senator Santorum about this,” Specter said. “I would never make a promise on a vote like this under any circumstances. I’m sorry his support for me has caused him trouble in his efforts for the Republican nomination for president. He’s had six years to make this charge and he hadn’t said anything about it.”

Later, Santorum spokeswoman Virginia Davis told PoliticsPA that her boss is sticking by his story.

“Senator Santorum stands firmly by the statement he made today about the commitment he received from Senator Specter in 2004 to support President Bush’s nominations to the Supreme Court,” Davis said. “And there was no better illustration of that commitment than Senator Specter’s ardent defense of both Justices Alito and Roberts during their confirmation hearings.”

“Against the advice of my wife,” Santorum said during his address to the conference Saturday, “I endorsed Arlen Specter.”

He responded to the boos with a folksy “My sentiments exactly!”

“How many times have I said this in my 20-plus years of marriage?” he said. “I should have listened to my wife.”

Santorum’s not the only one getting ready for the next cycle. Brooks Estadt, an insurance agent who lives near Scranton, appears to be the first Republican throwing his hat into the ring against Senator Bob Casey in 2012. Estadt was thinking about running this year. “But I kept being told I was starting too late,” he told pa2010.com.

He had a full-fledged campaign Web site online earlier this month, but it’s since been taken down and will go back online, he said, after some errors are corrected.

In a letter obtained and published Tuesday by GrassrootsPA, Santorum asks friends “for your help to elect my good friend, Tom Corbett, the next Governor of Pennsylvania.

“With public confidence in our Democratic Governor Ed Rendell and legislature near historic lows, Tom’s campaign for Governor could not come at a more critical time,” Santorum writes in the letter. “After all, there is no margin for error when it comes to rectifying the enormous problems Pennsylvania faces today.”

He goes onto ask supporters to contribute to Corbett’s campaign.

Disclosure of Santorum’s letter comes just hours before state Representative Sam Rohrer (R-Berks) is set to launch a conservative challenge to Corbett.

Click here to download Santorum’s letter.