Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are in a fierce fight for the conservative vote. | AP Photos Gingrich, Santorum fight for conservative edge

DUNCAN, S.C. — Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum both tried to convince a crowd of more than 500 Republicans at a forum here Friday night that they deserve to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney.

Basically ignoring each other, they focused their fire on Romney and President Barack Obama.


“If we end up splitting the conservative vote, we’re going to stumble into nominating somebody that 95 percent of the people in this room would be very uncomfortable with,” Gingrich warned, to loud applause.

With only one week to go before the state’s June 21 primary, Gingrich, Santorum and Rick Perry are in a fierce fight for title of conservative foil to Romney in what many observers believe will be the last chance to stop Romney on the path to the GOP nod.

An automated poll released Friday by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling found that 58 percent of primary voters do not want Romney to be the nominee, but conservatives are divided among Gingrich, Santorum and Rick Perry. Romney led, but Gingrich trailed him by just five points.

Though Gingrich and Santorum played nice with each other, the former House speaker continued his campaign against Romney while speaking to reporters after his turn was done just outside the high school cafeteria where the event was held.

He said that in the coming week, he would attack the former Massachusetts governor on abortion and gun rights, as well as over his record on taxes. The ex-Georgia lawmaker also challenged Romney to release the data he has used to claim that he created more than 100,000 jobs while helming Bain Capital.

“He can’t defend his governor’s record — it’s too liberal for South Carolina,” Gingrich charged. “And he doesn’t want to explain his jobs record — except for commercials,” Gingrich said.

“My primary message is going to be about my background. … I’m going to primarily focus on the contrast with Gov. Romney and then saying to people, ‘If you look at the polling data, clearly, if conservatives are going to rally around one candidate, it’s probably going to be me. And if they do rally around one candidate, it’s clear that Gov. Romney will lose.’ I’m much more concerned about drawing a contrast with Romney.”

At the forum , sponsored by the Spartanburg and Greenville county Republican parties , Gingrich spent 30 minutes fielding questions from GOP Reps. Trey Gowdy and Jeff Duncan. He then left the stage to Santorum, who spent an equal amount of time answering similar queries.

Arguing he would be the best candidate to debate Obama in the fall, Gingrich went out of his way to avoid attacking Santorum while they were both in the same room. The former House speaker called the ex-Pennsylvania senator “a good friend” and added that he is “very fond of [Santorum’s] family.”

“I believe that if you look at the polling data, you look at everything that’s going on and you look at the scale of the campaign, I believe if you will help me that we can win on the 21st,” Gingrich argued, receiving a positive reception from the audience of GOP activists.

“We will go into Florida with momentum. … And if we win those two back to back, we will guarantee a conservative nominee on a conservative platform to offer a clear and decisive choice.”

Santorum urged the audience to “be bold” and take a stand for conservative principles.

“South Carolina is a state that stands up and prides itself on its strong traditional values, conservative values … and deeply believes in family and faith as the foundational principles,” Santorum contended.

“Remember this: When South Carolina voted for Ronald Reagan, he wasn’t ‘Ronald Reagan,’” Santorum added. “He became the Ronald Reagan we remember, but you saw the Reagan. And you believed he could be that Reagan we could remember someday. Be bold.”

Santorum gently contrasted himself with Gingrich on immigration, who caught flak from many conservatives for suggesting there should be a path to U.S. citizenship for some illegal immigrants.

“Newt is my friend, and Newt and I just have a disagreement on this,” Santorum said.