Dollar for dollar, the big winner in the Iowa caucuses was Rick Santorum's bargain campaign. Though his advertising was "skeletal" and his staffing "lean," he stayed neck-and-neck with Mitt Romeny's lavishly funded race, notes the New York Times, and only just slipped to second place by 8 votes. The former senator conducted no polls or focus groups, and hired no speech writer. He even managed to use the stingy campaign as a selling point, boasting: "You can't buy Iowa."
His secret? Shoe leather and savvy help. He relied on longtime aides from his Pennsylvania Senate runs and on assistants from Mike Huckabee and Romney's 2008 primary runs in Iowa—and he zigzagged the state. “Santorum had a very small, dedicated and super smart team that did not over-manage his assets,” said Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Iowa GOP. “He put in the time and allowed his network to take shape organically.” Santorum faces bigger challenges now with expected increased media scrutiny and Romney's continued campaign spending. (More Rick Santorum 2012 stories.)
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