Rick Santorum

Richard “Rick” Santorum was born on May 10, 1958. He graduated from Penn State University in 1980 with a degree in political science before getting an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981. In 1986, Santorum received a law degree from Penn State Dickenson School of Law and settled in Pittsburgh to work for the firm of Kirkpatrick and Lockhart.

Santorum was elected to the U.S. House in 1990, at the age of only 32, after a tough race against a long term incumbent. He gained points by accusing his opponent of living outside the district most of the year, a charge that later came back to haunt him. While in Congress, he was part of the Gang of Seven that exposed the members of the House banking scandal and congressional corruption.

After 2 terms in Congress, Santorum ran for the Senate in 1994 and won. He was the author and key sponsor in 1996 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which implemented a welfare to work transition framework. He also actively supported key conservative stances on abortion, same-sex marriage, homosexuality, and privatization of government programs like Social Security. Santorum was very involved with the special legislation surrounding the Terry Schiavo case.

In 2000, Santorum ran for re-election and won, also capturing the position of Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. In 2003, he generated a lot of publicity and controversy when he stated in an Associated Press interview that the Constitution does not grant the “right to privacy”, therefore the state has the right to legislate private behavior such as sexual acts, even between consenting adults. This was accompanied by anti-homosexual statements that garnered protest from the gay and lesbian community.

Santorum spoke out openly in favor of the War on Terror and against the spread of what he termed “Islamic fascism”, making it a key issue in his 2006 run for re-election. In June 2006, before the election, he stated that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, an assertion that the intelligence community and the White House quickly distanced themselves from by saying that the weapons were actually a 15 year old cache of buried and expired casings. Santorum lost his bid for a third term in the Senate by losing to Democrat Bob Casey Jr., who exploited Santorum’s living arrangements in the same way he exploited his opponent’s in 1990.

Santorum joined a law firm in March of 2007, focusing on client business and strategic counseling services. He is also a Senior Fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and contributes to Fox News Channel.

Santorum has been mentioned as a candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania in 2010 and has stated he is considering a run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. To bolster his profile and candidacy, he has an early October 2009 visit scheduled in Iowa with several political organizations.