Rick Santorum, topped with NRA cap, shoots for conservative vote in Iowa

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

ADEL, Iowa - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum sought to underscore his conservative credentials today with a shotgun-toting pheasant hunt alongside a conservative congressman whose endorsement could sway votes in next week’s Iowa caucuses.

Dressed in blaze orange with a baseball cap stitched with the letters “NRA,” Santorum told reporters after bagging at least four birds: “I make the argument that there’s nobody who’s done more for the Second Amendment and been stronger on that issue than I have.”

More specifically, the former Pennsylvania senator warned that reelecting President Obama next fall could weaken gun rights. He cited the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in the 2008 Heller case that struck down portions of the District of Columbia’s strict gun control laws.

“If you read the dissent in Heller, no gun owner should feel comfortable this is a secure constitutional right according to this Supreme Court, and that’s why we need a good, strong Republican conservative who understands what it means to appoint and confirm solid judges and justices,” Santorum said.

On a pair of local issues that have also cropped up late in the caucus campaign, Santorum dismissed criticism of his endorsement last week by conservative activist Bob Vander Plaats. He also stood by today as his hunting partner, US Representative Steve King, continued to withhold his endorsement with barely a week to go until the caucuses.

Santorum revealed last week that Vander Plaats, president of the conservative group The Family Leader, asked for money in connection with his endorsement. Today, the senator dismissed suggestions of any “pay-to-play” deal.

He said Vander Plaats simply broached the subject of a contribution to promote the eventual endorsement, a request Santorum labeled as “benign.”

Santorum added: “I think some people who did not get the endorsement are trying to stir the pot to make it what it isn’t. ...If you’re going to endorse somebody, you want to make sure that your endorsement is out there among the people that follow you as supporters of his. That’s all he was saying to me; I didn’t think anything of it.”

King, meanwhile, said he is still unsure if he will endorse any of the caucus candidates.

“I’ve got a few days yet before a decision has to be made,” the congressman from Kiron said. “I want my head and my heart to come together, and when that happens, and if that happens, I’ll jump in with both feet. I hope it’s not after the ship’s already left, but it could be.”

Regardless, Santorum had confidence in what will likely be make-or-break caucuses for him.

“We still have a week to go, and no votes have been cast, and I feel very, very good that all the work that we’ve done, all the groundwork we’ve done, the foundation we’ve laid, it’s coming and working just perfectly,” he said.

Among the presidential contenders, Santorum had Iowa to himself today.

Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry were returning tomorrow to launch bus tours, while Mitt Romney was flying in about dinner time Tuesday after an earlier pair of stops in New Hampshire.

Ron Paul was due at the end of the week, while Michele Bachmann was returning after a trip home to Minnesota.

Jon Huntsman has largely skipped the state to focus his campaign on New Hampshire, whose primary on Jan. 10 comes immediately after the caucuses on Jan. 3.

While the candidates were virtually absent physically from the state today, both Romney and Perry announced new TV ads.

Romney’s, titled “Conservative,” aimed to do what Santorum did toting his shotgun: Reach out to the party base and activists who can determine the outcome of the voting a week from today.

“I am going to do something to government. I’m going to make it ‘Simpler, and Smaller, and Smarter,’” the former Massachusetts governor and business executive says in the spot.

Perry, meanwhile, pushed his image as a Washington outsider with a commercial called, “Part-time Congress.” He has cited the example of the Texas Legislature, which meets 140 days every other year, as a example of how the tame the federal government.

“If Washington’s the problem, why trust a congressman to fix it?” the Texas governor says in a message aimed at Gingrich, Paul, Bachmann, and Santorum. “Among them, they’ve spent 63 years in Congress, leaving us with debt, earmarks, and bailouts. Congressmen get $174,000 a year and you get the bill. We need a solution.”