Could Santorum have won?

[Verily]

Yes, he could have won.

Let the flame war begin.

For God's sake, Phil.  You pretty much think that every other state in America is going blue except for PA.  The problem is that your state is going deep blue a la New Hampshire when the other states--CO, VA, FL, etc.--are doing just fine as red states.  Wake up, man!  Santorum is a red state republican in a blue state.  End of story.  He lost because he stopped representing his constituency.  That's all.  Send him here to Colorado and we'll elect him for you.

That was incredibly funny because you say Phil is in denial about his state and then say Colorado is a conservative bastion

I never said it was a conservative bastion.  It's not...exactly.  But it's a red state and it's a lot more conservative than PA.  Santorum doesn't have to come to Colorado to win--there are lots of other good fits for him.  All I'm saying is that we'll take good care of Rick should he come here.

Okay, so Musgrave represents Colorado values, but Colorado isn't a conservative bastion? At least be consistent!

[Verily]

I bet he would have lost if he ran in '04.

Santorum might have lost had he run in 2002. He would have lost in 2000 had the Democrats run a half-decent candidate, and he only won in the first place because 1994 was a massive Republican wave.

[Verily]

I bet he would have lost if he ran in '04.

Santorum might have lost had he run in 2002. He would have lost in 2000 had the Democrats run a half-decent candidate, and he only won in the first place because 1994 was a massive Republican wave.

^That's true...



and No, there was no way Santorum would have one. End of story. What the question should be asking is how did Santorum become a senator for PA? That's an actual question we could have a debate on.

His opponent was Harris Wofford, a Democrat who had been appointed in 1991. Wofford won a special election later in 1991 against Dick Thornburgh, a Republican former governor, but one who had most recently been Attorney General in the then-very unpopular Bush Sr. administration. Wofford was considered very liberal and had been a protester arrested at the 1968 Democratic Convention. It was a bit of a shock when he won the election by ten points and was later considered to presage Clinton's upending of Bush the next year.

By 1994, however, Wofford had proven as liberal as Santorum was conservative, and the mood of the country was strongly against liberalism and Democrats. Moreover, Wofford was not a very good campaigner and had only been in office for three years, having never faced a general election. In the end, Santorum won the election very narrowly and failed to break 50%, winning 49-47. A (small-s) socialist candidate took 2%, and a (big-L) Libertarian took 1.7%.