Could Santorum have won?

[TeePee4Prez]

No.   He got his ass kicked by too much in SEPA for it to matter.  A liberal Democrat would have helped Santorum out west, but it would have not been enough to make up for the slaughter he took in SEPA.   Santorum lost STPA by about 36 points, in comparison Bush lost SEPA by 26 points in 2004 and lost the state by 2.5 points. 

Due to how bad Santorum got his ass handed to him in SEPA their is virtually no way a Feingold type of liberal would have lost to him.   He would have improved on his numbers out west, no question about that, but it would not have been nearly enough to win due to the utter thumping he received in the SE

I agree with this assessment.  A Feingold type liberal might have actually done slightly better than Casey in the Southeast.  Santorum would not have made up for it elsewhere and I'm thinking even Feingold would have won PA by 8-10 in 2006.  Sherrod Brown and Claire McCaskill won more conservative states. 

Face it, PA is slightly liberal than the national average overall, but still enigmatic.  We have pro-choice Republicans and pro-life Democrats in abundance. 

Given the 2006 dynamics, there was no way Santorum could have won unless his opponent was Chaka Fattah.  I think even Bob Brady would have beat him.

[TeePee4Prez]

Casey neutralized too many of Santorum's advantages in the west among conservative Democrats, and in the T to a lesser extent. He took the abortion and the gun issues off the table and combined that with an incredible name ID. In short, Casey gave many Democrats a reason to come home.

Santorum was also hurt by the stories about him possibly running for president, and the issue with his kids and going to school in Virginia. He looked like he was getting too big for the state. In that atmosphere, Casey couldn't have been a better foil.

I don't know how Santorum tried to cultivate a relationship with voters in SEPA, but I think he probably should have paid more attention to that area. They may not like his pro-life stands, but Santorum ought to have stressed other issues that he and moderate Republicans agree on, like taxes.  In general, Republicans need to watch these moderate suburbs. They've been going south for them, and that's not good.

In general, I think Santorum lost his rapport with PA voters. Something goes wrong when you get flushed out of as many areas as he did. I don't know how he could have won, but he didn't seem to have his pulse on what the voters were thinking.

I think the suburban Southeast is more economically liberal than people think.  Granted, they didn't like Jimmy Carter-esque taxes, but Bill Clinton didn't kill them either.  That's why you saw a Democratic trend.  You also have to couple the fact that a lot of white collar professionals are more vulnerable to job losses than they were during the 1980s and previous years helping to accelerate that trend.  Hard to believe that wealthy Abington Township, which has many multi-million dollar homes is represented in the State House by Democrats Josh Shapiro and Larry Curry while working class, primarily rowhome, Port Richmond is represented by Republican John Taylor.  Prior to the 1980s, people would have looked at you as if you had 10 heads for saying that.