With Bella Out of the Hospital, Santorum Returns to the Campaign Trail
Rick Santorum's daughter Bella was released from the hospital Monday night, triggering Santorum's return to the campaign trail in Pennsyvania today. That also may mean that Mitt Romney will finally get to use that attack ad he's been holding. Bella Santorum has a chromosomal condition and her health has impacted the Santorum campaign, with her father flying home and halting his campaign at times to be with her. So, her father's scheduled appearances at an event in Gettysburg and Lancaster, Pennsylvania today seems to be good news for both father and daughter.
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"Rick and Karen are happy to announce that their daughter Bella has been discharged from the hospital and returned home earlier Monday evening. The Santorum's are truly overwhelmed by the prayers and support they've received," said Santorum Communications Director Hogan Gidley in a CNN report, which mentions that Santorum had canceled his events this morning to settle in at home with his daughter.
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Politically (and yes, that seems pretty inconsequential when there's someone dealing with their child's fragile life), with Santorum back on the trail, the attention now shifts to Pennsylvania's April 24 primary and Romney's strategy. According to The Pittsburgh Tribune, Romney has dumped almost $3 million of advertising into the state with the intent, as National Journal's Alex Roarty reports, to bury Santorum in his home state. Romney's two weeks of ad buys have started, but as The New York Times' Katharine Q. Seelye reports, he and his team did pull one nasty attack ad because of Bella's hospitalization and Santorum's brief suspension of his campaign. Now it looks like Romney can finally get started.
