text: Only New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and long-shot candidate Rick Santorum support a federal crackdown on state policies legalizing cannabis, which is still classified as a Schedule I drug — the most dangerous category, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
  Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who worked on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, said Christie and Santorum, who are polling at 3- and 1-percent nationwide, are trying to gain traction.
  “It’s not as strong a focal point issue for the Republican base,” he said. “It’s two candidates trying to grab oxygen that Trump has eaten up and trying to portray themselves as law-and-order candidates who will bring stability back to the nation.”
  If former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., runs for president — he is set to announce his intentions May 27 in Pittsburgh — he will face a tougher task than in 2012 when he won the Iowa caucuses.
  Some Republicans think if Santorum enters the race he will only manage to divide social conservative voters. Ford O'Connell, a GOP strategist who worked for the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, said Santorum's entrance will be good news for "establishment folks" like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is courting more moderate Republicans.
  "He's [Santorum] got to understand that this isn't 2012 and he isn't competing against the B-team," O'Connell said. "He's really a poor man's Mike Huckabee, in the sense that he does very well with social conservatives and he does very well with the white working class who make under 65K. The problem is there are a lot of people competing in that arena."
  Several Republicans eyeing a 2016 presidential run have raised eyebrows recently with surprising comments on lightning rod issues like voter identification laws, minimum wage and climate change. The comments reflect both the fractured Republican coalition and the efforts by at least some of the hopefuls to grow the party base.
  Take former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who is insisting that his party’s stance against raising the minimum wage “makes no sense.” Santorum, who ran unsuccessfully for the party’s nomination in 2012, points to polls that show the vast majority of Americans strongly support a hike from $7.25 an hour to $10.10. The party’s stance of not even considering an increase runs counter to its claims that the GOP is fighting for working class Americans, Santorum says.
  Then there’s Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who last week came out against his party’s push for strict voter identification laws. The Tea Party favorite told The New York Times that such initiatives are “offending” minorities and that his party shouldn’t go “too crazy” on the issue. Conservative proponents of voter ID laws argue that such rules are necessary to cut down on voter fraud, while critics say such laws serve to exclude the poor and minorities, who are more likely to not have a government-issue ID (and are more likely to vote Democratic).
  And finally Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who this weekend pushed back on overwhelming scientific evidence to announce that he doesn’t believe human activity causes climate change. His remarks came just days after a White House report insisting climate change is a potentially catastrophic reality being hastened by human behavior.
  But Rubio insisted Sunday on ABC’s This Week: “I don’t agree with the notion that some are putting out there, including scientists that somehow there are actions we can take today that would actually have an impact on what’s happening in our climate.” He added: “Our climate is always changing.”