Vander Plaats Endorses Santorum

DE WITT, Iowa — Rick Santorum, who was the first Republican presidential hopeful to visit all 99 Iowa counties in a quest to gain traction for the party’s nomination, received a lift on Tuesday by collecting a highly coveted endorsement from Bob Vander Plaats, one of the most visible leaders of the Christian conservative movement.

Two weeks before the Iowa caucuses open the Republican nominating contest, many of the state’s evangelical voters have yet to unify behind one candidate. Tensions among influential groups have split the support of Christian conservatives, but Mr. Vander Plaats urged party activists to support Mr. Santorum.

“It just shows that we’re the candidate the folks see as on the way up,” Mr. Santorum said after learning of the endorsement. “We’re the candidate right now that has the momentum, that has the message that is resonating to the people of Iowa, and I think they are probably catching that.”

Mr. Vander Plaats, who has sought to put his imprint on the Republican presidential race, and other evangelical leaders have talked openly about their difficulty in choosing a candidate. For weeks, Mr. Vander Plaats has made supportive statements about Newt Gingrich, which touched off a storm of criticism among social conservatives here.

As he made his announcement on Tuesday, Mr. Vander Plaats did not stop with only an endorsement. He urged other socially conservative candidates to consider dropping out of the race and extending their support to Mr. Santorum, so he “could quickly vault into first place and win the nomination.”

That suggestion was dismissed by campaign advisers to rival candidates.

For Mr. Santorum, the backing of Mr. Vander Plaats and Chuck Hurley, another prominent conservative leader, the endorsement comes at a critical time. He is trying to persuade Republican voters in Iowa to give his candidacy a second look, hoping that a stronger than expected finish could help him break through.

“He could be the Huckabee in this race,” Mr. Vander Plaats told reporters, referring to former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008.

At this late stage in the campaign, it remains an open question how the endorsement from Mr. Vander Plaats will affect the race. His political activity, including leading the effort to remove three judges from the Iowa Supreme Court last year in a battle over same-sex marriage, has made him a lightning rod in some Republican circles.

The Family Leader, a conservative group that Mr. Vander Plaats formed after losing a bid for the Republican nomination for Iowa governor last year, narrowed its choices last month to Mr. Santorum, Gov.Rick Perry of Texas, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Mr. Gingrich.

The board of directors of the Family Leader announced Tuesday that they would formally remain neutral in the race because of divided loyalties among candidates. Mr. Vander Plaats and Mr. Hurley said their endorsements were personal and were not made as representatives of their organizations.

Mr. Perry, Mr. Gingrich and Mrs. Bachmann had aggressively courted the socially conservative leaders, hoping that an endorsement would provide a burst of momentum in the closing weeks of the contest here. As his campaign bus rolled through eastern Iowa on Tuesday, Mr. Perry reminded reporters that the Family Leader group remained neutral.

“You’ve got a number of really serious conservatives in the race, both social and fiscal conservatives,” Mr. Perry said, noting Mr. Santorum and Mrs. Bachmann by name. “I was not surprised at all that they stayed neutral, but you’d always love to get good endorsements like that.”

While social conservatives have held an outsize influence in previous campaigns here, polls show that the economy is the overriding issue for all Republicans who plan to attend the caucuses on Jan. 3. By failing to coalesce around a single candidate, Republicans here say the weight of evangelical voters could be diminished.