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:smoke: < > " (CNN) - Former Sen. Rick Santorum has announced he is forming a political action committee in the key early-voting state of Iowa, the latest sign the Pennsylvania Republican is getting serious about a White House bid in 2012.
"My federal PAC, America's Foundation, has already assisted some candidates in the Hawkeye State, but I am eager to do more and the Iowa Keystone PAC will help us do that," Santorum said in a statement. "There are many strong conservatives running in Iowa and assisting them with financial support may help put them in the victory column come Election Day."
Santorum says he intends to donate at least $25,000 to Hawkeye State candidates ahead of the November elections in what is likely an effort to establish a base of support in the critical caucus state before he formally decides on launching a presidential bid.
The announcement of the new PAC come comes a week ahead of Santorum's latest planned foray to Iowa, when he will make visits in Cedar Rapids and Coralville on October 13 and Davenport and Dubuque on October 14.
Santorum, who lost his reelection bid to the U.S. Senate in 2006, has visited Iowa five times in the last year, stoking speculation a bid for the White House is nearly a given. Late last Summer, Santorum met privately with several of his former Capitol Hill staffers to pitch the idea of a presidential bid in 2012, according to GOP sources familiar with the meeting.
But Santorum's case for the presidency is far from clear. The former two-term senator lost his 2006 re-election bid by 18 point and has been largely out of public view since then except for appearances on Fox News. Moreover, if he decides to make a bid for the presidency, he could face a potentially crowded field of candidates, including a string of better funded opponents with larger national political operations.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll released last week indicated that Santorum registered low single digits among Republican voters when it came to the choice for their party's next presidential nominee. Santorum was last among a list of potential GOP White House hopefuls listed in the survey.
Still, due in part to his strong opposition to abortion rights, Santorum remains popular with many socially conservative voters who have long had an influential role in the GOP primary process.
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