Rep. Michele Bachmann's former campaign spokeswoman has just signed on with the Rick Santorum campaign. 

Alice Stewart, who was Bachmann's communications director, will join team Santorum as its national press secretary. The move comes after Santorum won three state contests on Tuesday. 

Stewart said in a statement she is "honored and proud" to join up with the former Pennsylvania senator. 

"Senator Santorum has proven himself to be the true, consistent conservative in this race," she said. "Rick's growing momentum is evidence that voters realize he's the only candidate with the conservative record we need to stop Mitt Romney and beat President Obama."

Santorum, who is rising in national polls, placed second to Romney on Saturday in the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. 

Stewart also previously worked as a spokeswoman in the 2008 presidential campaign of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

It's like a kid in a candy store.

On Sunday, sweater-vest-loving GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum will visit the Lake Bemidji, Minn., manufacturing plant that makes his famous sweater vests for sale on his campaign website.

Bemidji Woolen Mills, founded in 1920, has been family owned since it was created in an effort to produce "the highest quality, authentic outdoor woolen apparel for the early logging era in Minnesota and surrounding states", according to the website.

The sweater vest has become a signature fashion item for the former Pennsylvania senator who has donnned one frequently on the campaign trail. Earlier this month the campaign began offering them to supporters who donated $100 or more to help fuel the Iowa caucuses winner's presidential bid.

Bill Batchelder, fourth-generation owner of Bemidji Woolen Mills, told The Bemidji Pioneer last month that the plant was rushing to fill the influx of orders.

"We're not exactly sure what our daily capacity is, but all hands are on deck. Our employees are extremely excited to be a part of this," Batchelder said.

The Florida Republican Party has released the final numbers of early and absentee voting to be revealed ahead of Tuesday's primary vote.

- 503,111 absentee ballots requested -- 199,132 more than in the 2008 GOP presidential primary.

- 308,416 absentees votes so far -- 85,353 more than in 2008. That will increase before polls close on Tuesday night.

- 283,250 people voted early -- 17,918 more than in 2008

- 591,666 total votes cast and counted before Election Day so far -- 103,271 more than those counted by the day before Election Day in 2008.

Trends show the total vote will likely end up between 1.5 million and 2 million Republican ballots cast.

TAMPA, F.L.-- Former GOP presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee "would love for" Newt Gingrich to pull a political campaign ad that features a comment he made during the 2008 campaign that appears to slam Mitt Romney for being "dishonest."

"I know Newt Gingrich at the end of the ad says I approved this message, well let me just say, I didn't approve that message," Huckabee said in an interview Friday on Fox News.

The former governor of Arkansas said his words were "taken out of context" and were also " deceptive" because he was not referring to Romney, one of his 2008 primary rivals.

"That spot, which was back in December of 2007, never mentioned Mitt Romney by name, it never said anything about Mitt Romney. It was a general statement," Huckabee, has not endorsed anyone so far in the 2012 presidential race, and says he doesn't plan to do so. (read more)

MIAMI -- Flanked by his squad of powerful Cuban-American supporters, including Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and former Sen. Mel Martinez, presidential aspirant Mitt Romney made an appeal to Hispanic voters in Florida that if elected president, he would take a much more aggressive stance against the Communist regime in Cuba than the current Obama administration.

"If I'm fortunate to become the next president of the United States it is my expectation that Fidel Castro will finally be taken off this planet," Romney said to emphatic applause from the crowd of 500 gathered at the Magic City's landmark building, the Freedom Tower. "I doubt he'll take any time in the sky. He'll find a nether region to be more to his comfort."

Romney also criticized President Obama's "appeasement" of a U.S. trade embargo and travel restrictions that have been opposed by the majority of Cuban-American Republicans. (read more)

Fox News confirms that Jeb Bush plans to "stay neutral" during the Florida GOP primary and will not endorse a candidate before the January 31st election.

This is according to a Jeb Bush insider, who communicated with the former Florida Governor today.

COLUMBIA, S.C.- The old adage, 'Better late than never' would suitably fit the scenario GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum now finds himself in on the eve of the South Carolina primary.

Weeks after the January 3rd Iowa Caucuses and after they announced rival Mitt Romney as the apparent winner by 8 votes, the Iowa Republican party sent out an email late Friday affirming that the former Pennsylvania senator was the new victor of the first in the nation vote.

"In order to clarify conflicting reports and to affirm the results released January 18 by the Republican Party of Iowa, Chairman Matthew Strawn and the State Central Committee declared Senator Rick Santorum the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucus," the Iowa GOP statement reads.

Earlier this week Santorum was shown to have a 34 vote lead over Romney after the certification process of the caucuses vote tally, essentially a process that involved a recount of the GOP ballots. Initially, the Iowa GOP essentially labeled it a virtual tie. (read more)

COLUMBIA, S.C.-- The editorial board of The State, Palmetto State's largest newspaper, is now endorsing presidential candidate Mitt Romney with just two days before the South Carolina GOP primary election. The paper had initially supported Jon Huntsman but the former Utah governor then awkwardly dropped out on the same day of the endorsment.

"Romney was not our first choice for the Republican nomination for president of the United States, but he was one of two candidates who stood head and shoulders above the rest of the field as sensible, experienced grownups with a history of making things work rather than pursuing ideological fetishes, " The statement reads in today's edition. 

"The Republican Party needs a leader who can pull it back from the brink, reminding voters and other candidates alike that passing ideological litmus tests is not a virtue and that negotiation and compromise are not sins, but rather the essential building blocks of a republic. In fact, that view of politics and government is what our nation needs. We will be looking for Mr. Romney to provide it, " the paper concludes.

COLUMBIA, S.C.-- Mitt Romney released a statement early Thursday morning after the news broke that the Iowa certification results of the Republican caucuses showed Rick Santorum up by 34 votes. Romney was initially thought to have a Hawkeye state victory with a tiny margin of 8 votes on January 3rd.

" The results from Iowa caucus night revealed a virtual tie. I would like to thank the Iowa Republican Party for their careful attention to the caucus process, and we once again recognize Rick Santorum for his strong performace in the state. The Iowa caucuses, with record turnout, were a great start to defeating President Obama in Iowa and elsewhere in the general election."- Mitt Romney.

The Iowa GOP say it is too difficult to determine who actually won, and calls the outcome a " split decision" because results from eight precincts are missing, which may have given Romney the edge.

Mike Campbell, a major South Carolina backer of Jon Huntsman -- and the former state chairman for Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign --will endorse Newt Gingrich Thursday in Charleston, S.C., Fox News has learned exclusively from GOP sources in the first-in-the-South primary state.

Campbell, the son of the late Gov. Carroll Campbell, a Palmetto State icon, was being heavily courted by several campaigns after Huntsman bowed out earlier this week.

Despite an overwhelmingly lackluster effort in South Carolina, Huntsman was considered to have one of the best teams in South Carolina, many of whom supported Huckabee in 2008.

However as S.C. GOP chairman Chad Connelly told Fox News earlier this week Huntsman's failed usage of this highly-respected state team was akin to "buying a brand new sportscar and leaving it in the garage."