Now that the latest fundraising
reports are available, we know how much Mitt Romney and his super PAC spent during the month of January destroying Newt Gingrich and setting the stage for the surge of Rick Santorum: $32.6 million. And here's how much Rick Santorum and his super PAC spent during the same period: $4.9 million.
On paper, Romney had a better month than Santorum: he won two of four contests—including coming back from a rout in South Carolina to destroy Newt Gingrich Florida—and nabbed an estimated 71 delegates. Santorum, meanwhile, managed to win Iowa but didn't get credit for it until two weeks after the fact and ultimately amassed just 13 delegates. Nonetheless, Rick Santorum emerged in February as a stronger candidate than Mitt Romney, even though he'd just been outspent by a seven-to-one ratio.
In total, Romney's super PAC has spent $20.5 million during the campaign, $17.3 million of which has been spent annihilating Newt Gingrich. Given that Santorum wouldn't be on the rise if it weren't for the Mitt Romney attack machine's destruction of Gingrich, you could argue that Romney's super PAC has been Santorum's best friend—until last week, at least. Since February 14, Romney's super PAC has turned its attention nearly exclusively on Santorum, spending $2.1 million to try to bring Santorum down like Newt before him.
If Santorum manages to survive the Romney onslaught, he'll have Romney himself to thank for clearing the path. If not, he'll probably end up like Newt Gingrich: a bitter loser, wondering what in the world just hit him.