(NOTE: This is a compilation of my posts in a blog that had several reporters contributing around the state. It originally had links in it, but they were lost in translation.)
Santorum HQ gets the party started
Not heeding the polls or pundits who had largely declared the U.S. Senate race over before it started, the Santorum camp here is putting its shoulder down and preparing to shake some booties in its victory celebration.
Red, white and blue balloons are bunched together throughout the ballroom in the Omni William Penn Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh. A band just practiced its lively rendition of “(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty” by KC and the Sunshine Band.
Santorum has not yet arrived in the ballroom, filled mostly by journalists preparing for the long night ahead. CNN and Fox News, perhaps doubting the competitiveness of the race, are conspicuously absent.
In case you’re wondering which 24-hour news network the Santorum team prefers, you guessed it: Fox News. A big screen TV has been tuned to the channel throughout the day.
Santorum spokesman rejects exit polls
Santorum spokesman Robert Traynham didn’t give much credence to CBS News calling the race in Bob Casey’s favor based on exit polls.
“We don’t believe in exit polls,” a still-confident Traynham told a press gathering just minutes after the polls closed at 8 p.m. “We believe in every single vote being counted.”
Traynham said Santorum had spent the afternoon calling undecided voters and getting a haircut with his family, making sure they all looked good for the cameras.
Santorum spokesman says don’t count him out
As if to say “No, really, we mean it,” Santorum spokesman Robert Traynham gathered reporters and urged them not to count Santorum out, despite several news organizations calling the race in Bob Casey’s favor.
“(News organizations) have gotten it wrong in the past, and our prediction is they’ll get it wrong again,” he said.
A television that had been tuned to Fox News throughout the afternoon and early evening has been replaced by a smiling picture of the senator. Fox News is among the news outlets that have declared Casey the winner, but Traynham said that wasn’t the reason for the change. A staffer said she expected to show a video on the screen soon.
The band is offering easy listening as the ballroom begins to fill with supporters. Santorum and his family have not yet made an appearance.
It Ain’t The OC
Supporters are filing in to the ballroom here and sipping drinks. And no one knows more than college students that nothing gets a party started like a montage of political ads.
That’s right, the current entertainment in the Santorum headquarters is a video collection of all of Santorum’s ads. P-A-R-T-Y.
University of Pittsburgh freshman Lou Ruffalo said he isn’t fazed by the numerous news organizations calling the race. But there isn’t exactly a winning atmosphere here, he said. No chants, cheers, waving signs or anything.
“I’m confident personally, but I’m not feeling it from the atmosphere here,” he said. “I don’t think even the most loyal supporters, and I am very loyal to Rick Santorum, expect (a win) now.”
Pitt senior Kimberly Stiles is still wearing a big smile. An intern for Santorum’s campaign, she spent all afternoon calling registered voters who hadn’t gone to the polls yet.
It wouldn’t be the first time Santorum has narrowed a deficit when no one expected him to, she said.
“I don’t think any of us are ready to give up,” she said. “You never know until everything is counted.”
Santorum says he’ll spend time as husband, father
As Rick Santorum publicly conceded the race at about 10 p.m. tonight, he pledged to help new senator-elect Bob Casey Jr. through his transition into office.
He encouraged a reluctant crowd to give a round of applause for Casey. The crowd obliged, though unenthusiastically.
“I know he is a fine man, and he will do a fine job for Pennsylvania,” Santorum told hundreds of gatherers, who went silent when Santorum told them he had called Casey minutes beforehand. Someone shouted “Oh no!” from the crowd.
Santorum was led on stage by his wife and six children. At one point, his daughter Sarah Maria burrowed her head in his left arm. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.
“Now is going to be a great opportunity for me to do more of what I write about and talk about, and that’s to be a better husband and father to this wonderful family,” he said.
Dude, you (sorta) rock
The Santorum team said repeatedly in the weeks and months leading up to tonight that they wouldn’t acknowledge the possibility of defeat. Nothing could make this more clear than the post-concession playlist for the band.
In addition to cheery Abba hit “Dancing Queen,” one of the first songs to play after Santorum finished was The Four Seasons’ “December ’63 (Oh What A Night).” Talk about rubbing it in.
Patriot-News reporter Brett Lieberman just noted that the same song played after Santorum’s victory in 1994. But no one was in the mood to hear it this time.
The senator-elect, Bob Casey, isn’t exactly winning the pop culture war when it comes to choice of music.
As he entered the room to make his victory speech, he was preceded by the double shot of Van Halen’s “Right Now” and Bon Jovi’s “Who Says You Can’t Go Home?”
Santorum ’08?
Deborah Weiss reluctantly obliged when Rick Santorum asked the crowd to applaud for Bob Casey Jr., but she wasn’t happy about it.
“I applauded, but it was out of politeness,” she admitted.
A 9/11 survivor, her office had a wall blown in, and she was left homeless for two months afterward, she said. Now living in Washington, D.C., the Santorum volunteer couldn’t help but be upset about losing an official whom she considers one of the most valuable leaders against terrorism.
“He was one of the few senators that understood the threat and tried to do something about it,” she said.
Despite upbeat music that was crafted for a victory celebration, the mood was solemn after Santorum’s concession speech. Supporters had been ready for an all-night proverbial stake-out, waiting for the voting results to prove several outside predictions wrong.
But hope ended, and the room’s mood deflated quickly after Santorum’s speech.
“To me, it’s incredible loss, not just to the state but to the world,” said Brandon Walecka, a political science student from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth who campaigned in Pennsylvania because of his love for Santorum.
” ’08 is in my head,” he said. “He’s not gone. He’s not forgotten. He’ll come back.”