Both presidential candidates are embracing Walker. | AP Photos Santorum, Romney embrace Walker

Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are hitching themselves to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in hopes of gaining an edge in Tuesday’s presidential primary.

Both presidential candidates are embracing Walker ahead of the June 5 gubernatorial recall race, which is energizing GOP activists and sucking up more oxygen than the GOP race.


“Let’s face it, this presidential primary is different from any other because it’s taking the backseat politically to the recall, and it’s completely different. It’s the only state in the union, I can guarantee you, where presidential politics isn’t as important as something else. The recall’s all people are talking about politically,” Ted Kanavas, the co-chair of Rommey’s Wisconsin campaign, told POLITICO. “Everybody’s got an opinion, trust me. There is nobody out there that’s undecided.”

As Romney has racked up big endorsements from establishment figures in recent days — including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former President George H.W. Bush — the importance of Santorum winning Wisconsin is increasing. Even if Santorum did win the Badger State, he would still trail Romney badly in the race for the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the GOP nod.

Both candidates are seeking to generate enthusiasm by tying themselves to Walker, who made national headlines in 2011 for spearheading an acrimonious fight over a law to curtail collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions in Wisconsin.

At times, Santorum’s rallies have hosted more onlookers carrying Walker signs and buttons than the candidate’s own, and chants of “Walker” occasionally break out when the candidate fails to mention Walker at the top of his speech.

But it’s typically not long before the former Pennsylvania senator name-checks Walker and lauds the governor’s record.

“Here’s why I’m here,” Santorum told supporters in Beaver Dam, Wis. “Because I know you folks can do it. I know Wisconsinites have it in them. Because you have a governor who sent a shot around the world. And of course when you shoot, the other side shoots back. But the people of Wisconsin I know are going to stand behind him because you know … that freedom is at stake.”

Not to be outdone, Romney, courting voters in a tele-townhall, threw his support behind Walker, calling him an “excellent governor.”

“I believe that he is right to stand up for the citizens of Wisconsin, and to insist that those people who are working in the public-sector unions have rights to affect their wages, but that these benefits and retiree benefits have fallen out of line with the capacity of the state to pay them,” Romney said.

“And so I support the governor in his effort to reign in the excesses that have permeated the public-sector union and government negotiations over the years,” Romney said.

Romney is also using the issue to lash out at Santorum in an automated phone call, blasting the former Pennsylvania senator as a Big Labor supporter who “joined with liberal Democrats in voting against right-to-work legislation during his time in Washington.”

“Calling Rick Santorum a friend of labor is like calling Mitt Romney a conservative. Neither are true,” Santorum rebutted, according to The Associated Press.

This weekend, Romney plans a visit to a call center supporting Walker ahead of the recall election. At a bowling stop in La Crosse, a student asked Santorum if he planned to campaign for the governor while in the state. Santorum said he was trying to work an event this weekend.

But while Santorum and Romney are swatting each other in the hope of capturing the attention of grass-roots activists who will turn out on Tuesday, neither is in the spotlight.

Instead, Wisconsin’s Republicans are focused on protecting Walker from recall, adding a new dynamic to the race for the state.

But for all the jockeying around the recall vote and stumping on Walker’s behalf, the Wisconsin governor, along with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, has so far stayed on the sidelines, offering no endorsement in the GOP nominating contest.

“Gov. Walker has not endorsed any presidential candidate. He’s really been sticking to his knitting and working on his own election activities. … He’s said very publicly that’s not something he can be involved in this election cycle,” said Phil Prange, a longtime fundraiser for former Wisconsin governor and now-Senate candidate Tommy Thompson.

Paul Bucher, a former Waukesha County district attorney now in private practice, agreed, saying the GOP contenders would be better off taking the same tack.

“Whether it’s smart on Santorum’s part, I’m not so sure. I know that Scott wants to stand on his own. I can’t say that he’s told me that, but he’s going to rise and fall with what he has done” on the public-sector unions, Bucher said. “I’m sure [Santorum] would appreciate [Walker’s support], but I don’t think it would be in Scott’s best interest to tie his wagon to anybody, whether it be Romney or Santorum.”

“If I would have been on Santorum’s staff, I would have just told him to stay away,” Bucher continued. “Not denigrating Scott, but I think there are just too many other issues that are flowing out there that, depending on how they turn out in the end, aren’t going to do Santorum any good.”

Forging a link between themselves and Walker is “smart politics for any of these presidential candidates,” said Mark Graul, the former chief of staff to Wisconsin Rep. Mark Green. “Normally, candidates are going to their own phone banks in the days leading up to an election. None of them could have a phone bank this time because all of the volunteers are so focused on helping Gov. Walker.”

Smart politics, sure. But it’s unlikely to sway voters, Prange said.

“I can understand why Santorum is doing it, I just don’t think it’s going to help him,” Prange said.

“Republicans in the state are fired up for Walker. I can’t imagine they wouldn’t be fired up for any Republican nominee. … I don’t think it’s a winning strategy. I don’t see how it clicks with Wisconsin voters. I just don’t see it.”

Santorum, Prange said, “needs to win the primary at all costs,” but he added that the Pennsylvanian’s efforts in the state probably are “too late.”

“I don’t think any of these things are moving numbers. People’s minds are made up,” former Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum said. “The Sunnis and the Shiites have nothing over the Republicans and the Democrats in Wisconsin. It’s very deep and very hardened. There’s not a lot of swing between undecideds.”

Ginger Gibson contributed to this report.