Santorum presses on in Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE – Down in the polls and trying to pull off an upset in Wisconsin, Rick Santorum stepped up his battle against Republican front-runner Mitt Romney on Monday even as Romney continued his sharp pivot toward a potential fall matchup against President Barack Obama.

Barnstorming through five stops in eastern Wisconsin, Santorum called on his supporters to take an “opportunity to shock the world” and help him win the nomination.

“I ask your support to stand with the conservative candidate,” Santorum told a crowd of about 200 people at La Sure’s banquet hall in Oshkosh. “A conservative … is the best chance for us to win this election, someone who can take on Barack Obama.”

During a town hall meeting in a warehouse at Moore Oil on Milwaukee’s north side, Romney didn’t mention any of his GOP challengers and criticized Obama for not keeping promises made about reducing the national debt and boosting the economy.

“His economic strategy was a bust,” Romney said, adding that “in my ideal world, government spends less and government is smaller.”

“We have a president whose vision is to spend more and more with a bigger and bigger government,” Romney said.

Romney aims to sweep Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C., and move closer to becoming the GOP’s presumptive nominee.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul also remain in the race.