GOP primaries

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has endorsed Tea Party challenger Evan Feinberg (R), a former staffer, in his race against longtime Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.).

Paul is a favorite of Tea Party supporters and conservatives. His endorsement of Feinberg comes on the heels of the backing of another prominent conservative and former Feinberg employer: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

Former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain’s chief of staff is joining him at his new super-PAC. 

Mark Block will serve as the treasurer for Cain Connections PAC, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Block is well-known for his work on the Cain campaign last year, including an unusual appearance in a commercial that showed him smoking.

He also came under criticism last year from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which said the nonprofit Prosperity USA, which Block ran, helped initially fund Cain’s campaign through paying for $40,000 worth of campaign trips and iPads.

Nonprofits aren’t allowed to contribute to campaigns.

—Jonathan Easley contributed.

Rick Santorum has received his first endorsement from a congressman not from his home state of Pennsylvania: Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) is backing him, Santorum's campaign announced Friday morning.

"In Rick Santorum we have a leader who reveres America's founding principles because they are his foundation, a leader who understands the importance of manufacturing to economic growth because it is his history, and a leader with proven front-line success standing for freedom, for fiscal integrity and against Washington corruption," Aderholt said in a statement released by Santorum's campaign. "Rick Santorum has never just talked the talk, but he has walked the walk — inside and outside the halls of Congress. Rick Santorum has never just fought for the 1 percent, the 95 percent or the 99 percent of Americans, Rick Santorum has fought for a better future for all Americans. I am proud to endorse Rick Santorum for president."

Aderholt is the fourth House Republican to endorse Santorum. Mitt Romney, by comparison, has 77 lawmakers backing him. He's also the first congressman to serve with Santorum who's backing him — Santorum's other endorsers all were elected to Congress after he lost his reelection bid in 2006.

Romney slammed Santorum for saying he voted for legislation because he was taking "one for the team"

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) has a 13-point lead over Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) in their primary match-up, according to a new poll.

Kinzinger holds a 47-34 percent lead over Manzullo, according to the poll, conducted by pollster We Ask America.

Kinzinger won his seat convincingly in 2010, but his district was dismantled by redistricting. He decided to run in a new district that included some of his old territory as well as much of longtime Rep. Manzullo's.

The pollster also surveyed the Democrat-on-Democrat primary between Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (Ill.) and former Rep. Debbie Halvorson (Ill.), and showed Jackson Jr. with a 54-32 percent edge. The district is heavily African-American and covers much of his old territory, but Halvorson was banking on Jackson's ongoing ethics issues to make the race close.

Both polls were conducted in the last few days. The GOP poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percent, while the Democratic poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7.

The Illinois primary is about one month away.

The fiscally conservative Club for Growth released a statement blasting Rick Santorum for his support of then-Republican Sen. Arlen Specter's (Pa.) reelection bid in 2004 and defending Mitt Romney for hitting Santorum on the issue.

"Gov. Romney is right: Arlen Specter was the 60th vote for ObamaCare and Rick Santorum helped put him there," said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola. "Rick Santorum jettisoned conservative principles to support Arlen Specter when the Club for Growth PAC and much of the conservative movement was supporting Pat Toomey. Now he is pretending that his politically expedient support for Specter was based on principle when everyone in the Senate knew that Arlen Specter was a liberal, big-government Republican."

Santorum went to bat for Specter in his primary, and has argued since that he did so because Specter promised him he would help push through conservative judges.

Toomey narrowly lost that primary, then went on to head the Club for Growth before winning his Senate seat in 2010 after Specter defected to the Democratic Party, then lost in the primary.

Chocola and Toomey are close: While Toomey ran the Club he brought Chocola in to help, and picked him as his successor when he decided to run for the Senate.

"Elections have consequences, and if Rick Santorum wants to lamely take credit for Specter's judicial votes, then Santorum should both take responsibility and apologize for enabling Specter's critical role in the passage of ObamaCare.”

While Chocola and the Club have not endorsed in the race, they have been critical of Santorum at other times. But Chocola has also ripped Romney, telling The Hill on Wednesday that the former Massachusetts governor talks "in the language of the left" on tax policy and that his new tax plan is "not inspiring."

Club for Growth President Chris Chocola, a conservative leader, finds Mitt Romney's economic rhetoric worrisome and new tax plan uninspiring, he told The Hill Wednesday afternoon.

"Romney talks in the language of the left, unfortunately, by talking about fairness, the 1 percent and picking the same arbitrary levels as [President] Obama does," he said.

Romney announced out the details of his plan to overhaul the tax code Wednesday afternoon, and said he supported a "progressive" tax code where the wealthy were taxed at a higher rate than the poor.

"I'm going to limit the high-end deductions particularly for high-income folks," Romney said. "We can make sure the top 1 percent is paying their current share or more."

Chocola was less than enthused with the plan itself.

"It's not bold," he said. "It’s not inspiring. You could say the same thing about his whole campaign: It’s directionally correct but it’s not inspiring. He’s never been a bold campaigner and he’s not offering bold policy, and so we shouldn't be surprised."

President Obama won’t be watching the GOP presidential candidates duke it out during Wednesday night’s debate.

Mitt Romney picked up the backing of Michigan's second-largest paper Wednesday morning with an endorsement from the Detroit News.

The editorial praises Romney's private-sector achievements as well as his ability to work with Democrats, and rips his opponents as unelectable and lacking the leadership qualities to be president.

"Mitt Romney stands alone among the Republican primary field as the candidate capable of winning the White House, and more importantly, of leading the nation to a prosperous future," the paper's editorial board writes.

It mocks those on the right hoping someone can beat Romney. "Very conservative Republicans have been lukewarm to Romney because of his history of more moderate positions on social issues. They have flirted with each of his rivals looking for a true standard-bearer of conservative values," the paper says. "But those Republicans are delusional if they think either Santorum or Gingrich can prevail in the fall against Obama."

Romney has been neck and neck with Rick Santorum in polls in the state where he grew up and his father served as governor. If he loses Michigan, Romney could be in bad shape heading into Super Tuesday one week later.

The Detroit News has the second-largest circulation of any Michigan paper, although more GOP primary voters live in the Grand Rapids area. The paper backed John McCain over Romney in the 2008 primary; Romney won that election by a solid margin.

The editorial says that Romney was a successful governor who also has "deep experience in turning around private companies."

"Romney has a refreshing free-market vision for restoring the nation's prosperity. He sees a return to our entrepreneurial roots, freeing individuals to reach for their dreams, take risks and strive for gain with minimal government encumbrances."

One point of contention: The auto bailout, which Romney strongly opposed and the paper says was "absolutely essential to the survival of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp."

But the paper says that the "the issue isn't a differentiator in the GOP primary, since the entire field opposed the rescue effort."

On Santorum, the editorial board says he was "rejected by the voters who know him best."

"Nothing in his background suggests he has the skills to unify Americans behind his banner and become the leader of the free world. In addition, his fealty to the religious right will make him unappealing to the critical independent voters who will decide the election."

The editorial describes Gingrich as "one of the more divisive figures in American politics" and says he "is hardly the person to bring the country together."

The state's primary is next Tuesday.

“By the time Texas is over, we will be very, very competitive in delegate count,” Gingrich predicted on Sunday.