Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Making his final pitch to Ohio voters Monday, Rick Santorum called on supporters to vote for a candidate of honor – all the while calling Mitt Romney dishonest for defending the health care legislation he signed as governor of Massachusetts.
"We now find multiple videos and op-eds where (Romney) advocated for... a government-mandated health insurance benefit, something he's been denying throughout the course of this campaign," Santorum told a packed crowd in Westerville, OH. "It's one thing to be for it, it’s another to not tell the truth to the people of this country."
The remarks came shortly after Santorum held a conference call with reporters in which he argued Mitt Romney’s record would undermine his ability to challenge President Barack Obama about health care during the general election.
Romney says the Massachusetts health care law was right for Massachusetts but that he would not have advocated for it as a model for the country. Still, the Santorum campaign continues to point reporters to clips of Romney television appearances as proof that the former governor believed the legislation could work beyond the state borders.
"Now we know that Gov. Romney, for the course of this campaign has told the people of this country something that wasn't true,” Santorum said. “Now it's one thing … to have bad policy. It's another thing to mislead the American public."
Demonstrating its organizational strength, the Romney campaign responded to the Santorum conference call even before it started.
Spokeswoman Andrea Saul blasted out a response: "Over the last several years, Governor Romney has said many times, in many different formats, that his health care reform plan was the right model for Massachusetts, and that it should not be used as a one-size-fits-all national health insurance plan. Governor Romney is a federalist and has always said that states should be free to come up with their own health care reforms.”
Recent polls show the two neck-and-neck in the Buckeye State heading into Super Tuesday.
