Surprised it took this long for a group called Philadelphians Against Santorum to endorse his opponent? Well, the crowd was just happy to see Casey in the city. Philadelphia is not really in play in this race. Though heavy support for Casey here is a given, a heckler at the event made it clear that support for the conservative Democrat is not universal.

"The Republican tactic is fear and smear," said Casey in his remarks. "All they want to do is to scare candidates like me."

Casey promised hope and prosperity, but a good amount of the speech was spent distinguishing himself from his opponent. "The difference between me and Sen. Santorum is my independence," said Casey. "Sen. Santorum is in lockstep with President George Bush."

Casey spoke about a variety of his positions. He said he wants to raise the minimum wage, repeal tax cuts for the wealthy, hold the Bush administration accountable for the war in Iraq, oppose outsourcing, make health care more affordable, repeal tax breaks for the wealthy and oil companies and oppose Social Security privatization.

While Casey does not outline specific plans for a good number of these items, many liberal urban residents will vote on social issues alone. If Santorum had secured, with federal funding, a lifetime supply of ice cream for each resident, people here would still only remember his opposition to the gay lifestyle and the book he published last year, It Takes a Family, which inflamed women who either can't or choose not to stay home to raise their children.

Santorum's pro-life position is equally distasteful to these voters, but Casey is also pro-life. However, his remarks that night on the issue of choice sounded almost like he's moderating his position.

Casey said that the common ground with the choice voters is his plan to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies by making emergency contraception available. He said there should be federal funding for family planning, birth control and emergency contraception.

Philadelphians Against Santorum had designated members to pose questions to Casey toward the end of the meeting. One asked Casey whether he supports campaign-finance reform. Casey said that, with this campaign, he's become a reluctant expert on fundraising. He doesn't like the system that forces campaigns to spend so much money to get their message out, but "I have no specific plan on that."

"What role does Philadelphia play in the race?" asked another.

"Philadelphia is very important," responded Casey. "The only reason John Kerry won the state was because of Philadelphia. The most important thing is that we raise money so we build our resources for our New Direction campaign. When I was out on my bus tour last summer, I went to 50 counties all around the state, mostly Republican, and people listened to my ideas."

Meanwhile, Santorum has been stockpiling money. Last week, Vice President Dick Cheney made a fundraising stop near Pittsburgh for him.

Press releases from the Casey camp were sent around fast and furiously, saying that "every dollar [raised by Cheney] is going directly toward smearing Bob Casey's good name."

Former President Bill Clinton makes a stop here for Casey next month when the focus will be how to get rid of "the vast right-wing conspiracy."

Santorum is expected to spend the next month in heavy campaign mode, as the Senate is out of session until after the November general elections.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter will be out stumping with Santorum. While Specter is a moderate Republican and is popular with Democrats, he is an active Santorum supporter. In 2004, Santorum helped Specter get the conservative vote when Specter was fighting the GOP primary against ultra-conservative Patrick Toomey.

He has a new press operative, Bobby Zafarnia, who replaced Doug Anderson, who considered returning press calls a chore.

(rcpatel@aol.com)