Top leaders of the state's religious right endorse the trailing candidate, but it is unclear whether their constituents will follow suit

Reuters

Two Iowa social conservative leaders endorsed Rick Santorum for president Tuesday, the end of a long saga of difficult deliberations that epitomized the religious right's inability to settle on a single 2012 candidate.

Though the Family Leader as an organization opted to stay neutral, its president and CEO, Bob Vander Plaats, threw his support behind the former Pennsylvania senator. "I really believe he could be the Huckabee in this race," said Vander Plaats, who chaired Mike Huckabee's successful 2008 Iowa campaign.

At the same Des Moines-area news conference, Chuck Hurley, president of the Iowa Family Policy Center, also personally endorsed Santorum. "I urge every undecided Iowa caucus-goer to take a close look at Rick, to study the Scriptures, to pray hard and to vote their conscience, for above all, we answer to God for our vote," Hurley said.

There's little question these endorsements will give Santorum a boost. The question is whether it will be enough to vault him from his current trailing position to the top.

Vander Plaats and Hurley both have very real constituencies among the religious voters who are a sizable portion of the caucus-going electorate -- or can be, if they're motivated to turn out. They've been active in the state's politics for many years, building contacts and credibility among a network of pastors, churchgoers and activists. As Hurley noted Tuesday, it was their campaign in 2010 that succeeded in ousting three Iowa Supreme Court justices who'd ruled in favor of gay marriage.