Santorum beefs up staff in Iowa

Former Sen. Rick Santorum is adding to his squad of advisers and strategists in the state that kicks off the presidential primary and caucus season.
Santorum announced Thursday that Cody Brown will manage the Pennsylvania Republican's testing the waters effort in Iowa. Brown ran conservative Ben Lange's bid last year to unseat Democratic Rep. Bruce Bradley in Iowa's first congressional district. Lange came close to upsetting Bradley in last November's midterm elections.

Santorum also announced that Lucas Draisey, the former chairman of the Iowa Federation of College Republicans, will serve as a field director in Iowa.
"I am thrilled to announce that Cody and Lucas are joining our team. They've demonstrated a unique understanding of what it takes to have an effective grassroots effort, particularly in a state like Iowa where folks want to see and hear directly from potential candidates" said Senator Santorum, in a statement.
Last week Santorum took his first formal step towards running for the Republican presidential nomination, filing with the IRS, which allows him to raise federal political contributions while he explores an official White House run. But his move stopped short of filing a presidential exploratory committee with the FEC.
In January, Santorum made news by bringing on board two experienced Republican strategists in Iowa, Nick Ryan and Jim Latham.
Santorum has made dozens trips over the past year to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, the four states that lead off the race to the White House.
Polls over the past year indicate that Santorum registers in the low single digits nationally among Republican voters when it comes to the choice for their party's next presidential nominee. But, 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. Earlier this month Santorum made headlines by winning a much-watched straw poll at the Greenville County, South Carolina Republican convention.