Opposite strategies yield same result for Romney, Santorum

One candidate pounded the pavement on a tight budget, visiting all 99 Iowa counties while wearing cowboy boots and riding in a supporter's pickup truck.

The other Republican presidential candidate held back until the very end but still reaped a handsome return thanks in large part to the millions of dollars in television advertising purchased by the "Super PAC" working in his favor.

But in the end, Rick Santorum (30,007 votes) and Mitt Romney (30,015 votes) reaped nearly identical performances in the Iowa Republican caucuses Tuesday.

"Santorum earned his strong showing with an old-fashioned, retail-politics campaign. In the months leading up to the caucuses, he held roughly 360 town halls across all of Iowa's 99 counties," CNN.com reported Wednesday. "Unlike his more well-financed rivals, the former senator worked off of a shoestring budget. While some candidates had their faces plastered across slick campaign buses, Santorum rode around in a supporter's pickup known as 'The Chuck Truck.'"

Conversely, CNN.com reported that Romney made fewer than 10 trips to Iowa during this election cycle but, as ABC News reported Wednesday morning, the former Massachusetts governor "outspent the former Pennsylvania senator by a 50 to 1 margin on television ads."

NBC News reported the final totals for TV ad buys in Iowa:

Romney's campaign: $1.5 million

Santorum's campaign: $30,000

Pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future: $2.8 million

Pro-Santorum Super PAC Red White and Blue Fund: $530,000

EMAIL: jaskar@desnews.com