MERCER COUNTY — The man credited for bringing now-presidential candidate Rick Santorum to a higher level of politics in 1977 is a Mitt Romney supporter.

Former U.S. Rep. Phil English, who represented most of Mercer County from 1994 to 2008, said he thinks Republicans need a candidate with a strong economic track record, and that’s Romney, but he always knew Santorum was destined for a national stage.

“A lot of us always thought Rick Santorum would be a national candidate,” English said. “A lot of people were surprised when he decided, never having run for office before, to run in his early 30s for Congress for a seat thought to be solidly Democrat in a Democratic year. But he surprised everybody by winning and turned around and survived a brutal reapportionment process and proceeded from there to win a U.S. Senate seat. So I was not surprised when Rick Santorum won in Iowa.”

English said that in 1977, when he was the state chairman of the college Republicans, he needed someone to lead Penn State University’s chapter. He was given the name of a freshman who had worked on John Heinz’s Senate campaign in 1976.

“I did something you couldn’t do today with campus security, I just went to the main campus, found the guy’s name in the student directory, went to his room and knocked,” English said. “We’ve been good friends ever since.”

English said Santorum enjoyed politics but didn’t have a focus until the college Republicans began. The group was heavily involved in a state Senate special election where Republican Doyle Corman came out on top, and Santorum interned with the man and later worked for him.

Santorum’s second-place finish in Iowa nearly two weeks ago, where he trailed frontrunner Romney by eight votes, was no surprise to English, who said Pennsylvania’s former senator does best in as a grassroots candidate. As an example, he cited, Santorum visiting all 99 counties in Iowa while campaigning.

 “I think he identified a strategy and a particular coalition he wanted to build early on, and that kind of reminded me of the same coalition he had in his Congressional race, which was to overcome his lack of resources by recruiting cultural activists and conservatives and put together kind of a diverse collection of Republican activists,” English said.

Cindy Robbins, state Sen. Bob Robbins’ wife and a party stalwart, said she remembers Santorum’s successful grassroots approach locally.

Once, while Santorum was a U.S. senator visiting Erie, he called to ask if she could organize a gathering for him later that day at her Salem Township home, she remembered.

She asked how many people to invite, and he said five or 10.

“We started making phone calls, and we hadn’t been on the phone more than a couple hours and people started calling, and we had probably 100 people or better here,” she remembered. “I said to Bob, we better stop making phone calls when people are starting to call you.”

She said she wasn’t surprised Santorum has gotten so far in the race for the GOP nomination. She remembers him being fairly popular as a senator.

“Rick’s pretty personable and pretty down to earth, and I think that goes a long way when somebody’s approachable,” she said.

Mrs. Robbins said she hasn’t made a decision yet on which candidate she’ll back.

“I don’t want to make a decision just because I know somebody, and I think they’d all be good,” she said. “There’s only one of the candidates I’d have real problems with.”

When asked if that candidate was Ron Paul, known for his more extreme opinions than the others, Mrs. Robbins said she wouldn’t confirm that. But she said she does have concerns regarding Paul’s foreign policy philosophy.

“In today’s world … with terrorists and Iran, you cannot be an isolationist and just assume nothing’s going to touch you,” she said.

“I think there’s a lot of good candidates. We’re just kind of sitting back and watching what happens.”

English, currently the co-chairman of government relations practice for Washington, D.C., law firm Arent Fox, said he sees Santorum continuing past this week’s race in South Carolina.

“My sense is he is, at least in national terms, outperforming everyone’s expectations,” he said. “I think he has a shot at South Carolina. I think that if he manages to outpoll Speaker (Newt) Gingrich, he may be in a position of positioning himself as an alternative to Romney and be in a position to inherit a significant pool of conservative support.”

Romney will likely be the party’s nominee, English speculated, but Santorum has a chance to stay in the race for awhile because of the many contrasts on conservative issues between the two men.

But, English said, Santorum, who served in the state Senate in the early 1990s and in the U.S. senate from 1995 until his defeat to Bob Casey in 2006, may face some challenges in Pennsylvania.

“He lost his last outing, and I think for that reason there are many inside and outside of the Republican party that are skeptical that he isn’t in a strong position to compete,” English said, noting polls recently showed Romney and Gingrich with more support than Santorum in Pennsylvania.

“I think he can expect a fairly significant hometown vote,” English continued. “I do think though that Republicans in Pennsylvania are looking for the strongest possible conservative to nominate against the president, and I think for that reason you’re going to see a great deal of support for Gov. Romney.”