washington cnn mitt romneys frontrunning campaign on monday criticized trailing rival rick santorum for remarks about romneys health care plan in massachusetts showing concern the conservative santorum might be poised for a strong showing in this weeks republican presidential contests the gop hopefuls face caucuses in minnesota and colorado on tuesday along with a nonbinding primary in missouri on saturday maine wraps up its caucuses followed by a break until a february debate on cnn and february primaries in arizona and michigan romney strengthened his leading status in the gop presidential race with a solid victory saturday in the nevada caucuses it was his second straight triumph and third in the five contests so far bolstering the perception he may be unstoppable in his second bid for the republican nomination santorum is competing with newt gingrich for conservative support to try to halt romneys momentum he has campaigned hard in minnesota and in missouri a state where gingrich failed to get on the ballot a major element of santorums campaign has been rightwing abhorrence of federal health care reform under president barack obama a big night for romney romney wins over conservative in nevada how the nevada caucuses unfolded analysts on romneys very poor interview in particular the former pennsylvania senator accuses romney of having backed a plan in massachusetts similar to the federal program that romney now pledges to repeal if elected president santorum kept up his criticism monday telling a campaign event in rochester minnesota that romneys past record on health care made him a poor choice to run against president barack obama in november the problem is that we have a candidate who is running who is now seen by the media as the prohibitive favorite who is the worst possible person in this field to put up on this most fundamental issue of this campaign and that is governor romney santorum said adding later that romney was simply dead wrong on the most important issue of the day and should not be the nominee of our party the romney campaign issued a statement monday that took on the constant attack line by santorum citing media articles and factcheck reports that labeled some of santorums claims as false it cited reports on factcheckorg and politifactcom in recent weeks that rated as not true or mostly false the statements by santorum that the massachusetts health care law passed while romney was governor created a governmentrun system the two websites also disputed santorums claims that the massachusetts plan under romney increased premiums and waiting times for patients and that romney advocated the massachusetts model for the entire country however santorums campaign responded with its own statement that repeated some of the claims cited by the romney campaign a separate statement from santorum spokesman hogan gidley said romneys attacks on santorum showed he was feeling the heat mitt romney cant attack obama on any of those major issues because gov romney agrees with obama on all of them and his attack and smear campaign is his way of avoiding his liberal record gidley said in the statement such attention by romney to the lastplace finisher in nevada indicated that santorums campaign may be generating support among conservative and evangelical republicans in minnesota and missouri in the nevada caucuses romney won with support while former house speaker gingrich had rep ron paul had and santorum had according to certified final results released monday romneys strong showing has gingrich now firmly lodged in second place plotting a southern revival gingrich appeared on two sunday talk shows to describe a survival strategy aimed at super tuesday on march when more than delegates will be at stake the contests that day include primaries in georgia gingrichs home state and neighboring tennessee southern states that border south carolina where gingrich has scored his only victory so far our goal is to get to super tuesday where were in much more favorable territory gingrich said on the nbc program meet the press others expressed skepticism that gingrich can revitalize his chances in the face of romneys surge since south carolinas primary there are primaries and caucuses in the next days and the map is lining up very well for mitt romney because heres the bottom line everybody knows hes got the best chance to beat president obama virginia republican gov bob mcdonnell said on the cnn program state of the union also on cnn former house republican leader dick armey who heads the freedomworks grassroots conservative group that helped start the tea party movement said gingrichs lone primary victory so far was likely to be his last i dont think newt will be able to replicate that magic moment in south carolina because he had a confluence of circumstances that came armey said romney meanwhile continues to work along at a steady pace and we are left with a dilemma that we are not going to get a reliable smallgovernment conservative out of this nominating process armey continued paul and santorum said sunday they would continue their campaigns despite trailing far back because romney in pauls words doesnt satisfy a lot of people paul said on the abc program this week with george stephanopoulos that the turnout saturday in nevada was lower this year than in when romney also won the state a similar lower turnout in florida this year compared with four years earlier has raised questions about whether republican voters are unhappy with their choices with a dedicated base of mostly young supporters paul could represent a valuable voting bloc if the outcome of the nomination race remained undecided at the gops august convention both paul and santorum got in digs at the frontrunner sunday asked about possibly getting romney to agree to some of his libertarian views paul said it could happen because romney has a history of changing his views if he hears from our young people and voters and we continue this yeah hes going to change his mind if theres a political benefit to it paul said santorum referred to romney as a unidimensional candidate on fox news sunday while on the cbs program face the nation former new york mayor rudy giuliani cited romneys past changes on issues as a reason for continued conservative skepticism about him he has changed his position on virtually everything said giuliani who has not yet endorsed anyone for the gop nomination he was a traditional moderate republican strong on fiscal matters conservative strong on foreign policy but basically socially moderate and he changed all that in the early primary and caucus states romney polled low among those who identified themselves as tea party supporters while gingrich drew much of the momentum for his south carolina primary victory from activists within the grassroots movement recent primaries show the tables have turned