Santorum Has Backing of Conservative Group

The Council for National Policy, a publicity-shy conservative group, is working hard to support Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. The group raised $1.8 million for the former Pennsylvania senator’s campaign and the super PAC supporting him at its meeting last weekend, Politico reports.

Members also discussed how to utilize their networks to assist Santorum.

“Hopefully, this will just be the first of a number of these types of events where the conservative movement leaders are coming together and saying ‘this is our man,’ ” iconic GOP strategist Richard Viguerie said at the meeting, Politico reports. Vigueri is a founding member of the Council and was an organizer of the main fundraiser for Santorum.

Santorum “needs money, and he needs the conservative movement to come off the sidelines and get fully engaged on behalf of his candidacy. If those two things happen, I am convinced that he will be the Republican nominee,” Viguerie said.

Santorum has relied largely on small donors for his campaign. And two million-dollar contributors, most notably money management magnate Foster Friess, a past president of the Council, have provided most of the funds for the Red, White and Blue Fund super PAC supporting the former senator.

The Santorum camp acknowledges it will need more big donors and a bigger campaign operation in primary states to pull closer to front-runner Mitt Romney, Politico reports.