He won Republican races in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri barely a week ago.
He’s leading in the latest poll in Ohio.
And now Rick Santorum has sold out the Summit County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner that will be held Saturday night in Akron.
The party cut off reservations earlier this week with a record number of tickets sold — more than 1,300. A waiting list contained more than 120 names as of Wednesday evening.
Summit County GOP party leaders couldn’t be more pleased to have Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, headlining their dinner this year at such a pivotal time in the Republican presidential showdown. The party will conduct a straw poll — the largest in Ohio — during the event.
“People are enthusiastic to see him,” said Bryan Williams, executive vice chairman of the county party’s executive committee and an at-large delegate for Santorum. “They are calling all the time. This is as full as the hall can be.”
Santorum will roll into Akron after two stops Friday in southern Ohio and an appearance at an Ohio Christian Alliance luncheon Saturday in Columbus.
The Akron event will be at Quaker Station in downtown Akron, with doors opening at 6:30 p.m., dinner at 7 and Santorum expected to speak about 8:30. The results of the straw poll will be announced after his remarks. Tickets were $50 each.
Other speakers will include numerous statewide officeholders, including Auditor Dave Yost, Secretary of State Jon Husted, Attorney General Mike DeWine, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who is from Green, and House Speaker Bill Batchelder, R-Medina.
Numerous media outlets are expected to cover the dinner, including the Beacon Journal, Toledo Blade, Cincinnati Enquirer and WAKR (1590-AM). The party thought C-SPAN also might attend, but the network decided to delay its planned trip to Ohio by a week.
The Akron event comes less than three weeks before Ohio’s primary, March 6, which is Super Tuesday. Votes will be cast in 10 states.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Santorum leading among likely Republican primary voters in Ohio, with 36 percent, followed by 29 percent for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. They were followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 20 percent and Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul with 9 percent.
“Santorum has zoomed to the front of the line among likely voters in Ohio’s March 6 presidential primary,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, based in Hamden, Conn. “He appears to be riding the momentum from his victories last week.”
The poll found many votes still up for grabs, however, with 50 percent of the likely voters saying they might change their minds.
Williams thinks the poll reflects a growing enthusiasm in Ohio for Santorum’s candidacy.
“I feel it,” he said. “I feel the momentum has come that way.”
That momentum, however, has not lifted Santorum past President Obama in the eyes of likely Ohio voters, according to Quinnipiac. In fact, none of the GOP candidates would unseat the president head to head in the state right now, the poll showed, with Romney coming the closest to victory.
Williams, who knows Santorum from previous stops he made in Ohio, invited Santorum to speak at the county party’s event last month. That was before his race-altering sweep of three states (one primary and two caucuses) Feb. 7.
“I told the campaign Mitt Romney will be in Cleveland,” Williams said, referring to Romney’s appearance tonight at the Cuyahoga County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner in Mayfield Heights. “We run the biggest in the state with the largest Republican straw poll. This is an opportunity for him to get the last word on Lincoln Days in Ohio.”
Williams’ prediction for the competing events is that Cuyahoga County will have “a nice Lincoln Day” and Romney will do “a nice job.”
“We will have a better Lincoln Day,” Williams said. “Rick will do better. He’s a better candidate.”
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.