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Right now. reporter: stumping in new hampshire, rick santorum gives his prescription for reducing the deficit. we have to do it in the areas where the deficit has been created. and that is, spending. reporter: but the former senator s opponents say he was part of the problem. he s very liberal. what makes him liberal? he spend too much money. reporter: they really hit him for taking earmarks, a dirty word in tea party lexicon. who personally demanded more than $1 billion of earmarks in his 16 years in congress? dave from ames. rick santorum? right. i have had a lot of earmarks. in fact, i m very proud of all the earmarks. reporter: the reality, it s hard to know if santorum really got a billion dollars in earmarks because he was defeated in 2006 before lawmakers were required to disclose their earmarks. but steve ellis says i think it s pretty clear if you look at the anecdotal ....
some of them are democrats. some of them are true independen independents. most are really republicans. reporter: elizabeth ossoff says don t call them renegades. i wouldn t call them renegades as much as i would call them fiercely independent in the sense that they re going to make up their own minds. reporter: what happened in iowa or what the pundants predict doesn t necessarily sell in new hampshire. voters here relish the vetting process. large town hall meetings are a kind of appetizer to the real meal, that up close encounter on main street. new hampshire radio host paul wescott says some of his listeners feel like some contenders have tuned them out. the candidates, they came. some of them have spent a lot of time here. reporter: like jon huntsman, mitt romney, and early on rick santorum. but it just didn t happen as much. the candidates stayed away. reporter: their daily planners were packed with a lot of debates, visits to iowa and national media interviews. ....
In an election cycle where republicans are having a difficult time rallying behind one candidate, some independent voters here are still scratching their heads. the republican field, i m not too impressed. reporter: mitt romney, the former governor from neighboring massachusetts, has consistently maintained a 2: 1 lead over his closest opponents, the clear front-runner in the granite state. smith says it s in the a warm embrace. romney. may not like it too much, but probably the guy with the best chance. so i think that s the kind of dynamic that s going on as well. reporter: former senator rick santorum is getting a second look after his near victory in iowa. newt gingrich is attacking the front-runner who cost him his fortunes in iowa. i think it s dangerous to make predictions in new hampshire. i really do. and i think you have to wait until the last possible minute. reporter: in the most recent poll, the sufficient fok university poll, mitt romney holds a big lead over ....
Evidence that he got at least $1 billion and probably much, much more. reporter: in 2005, alone, pennsylvania received $483 million in earmarks for 872 projects. during his years in congress, santorum issued press release after press release, bragging about bringing home the bacon. like an expansion project for job training center and $50,000 for gateway fasteners, a career development program in export, pennsylvania. santorum voted for that infamous bridge to no where in alaska. to go against the bridge to no where against senator stevens who was a very senior appropriator. bye-bye money for pennsylvania. exactly. reporter: santorum still defends his pork barrel projects. when you go to congress, you make sure that when taxes go from your state to washington, d.c., you fight to make sure you get your fair share back. reporter: to be sure, he was ....
That it brings a lot of media attention. it says, wait a minute, maybe this candidate might be for real after all. he was giving some pretty fiery comments in his remarks a moment ago. he was asked about the corporations are people too line from mitt romney. jon huntsman said, who would say such a thing? he repeated this comment that he has made from time to time on the campaign trail telling this young audience of college students, you re getting screwed, in his words, because of what s happening with the national deficit. you do get the sense that the former governor of utah is kind of going for broke, putting all his chips in because he realizes a bad showing in new hampshire means he might be out of this race. so i think he s trying to do everything he can at this point to sort of rachet up the energy around the campaign. rick santorum, as you know, jim, surged in iowa but got a pretty frosty reception in new hampshire. tell us about that. reporter: well, you know, i will say t ....