Santorum says daughter recovering

by Josh Lederman - 01/30/12 2:30 AM ET

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Rick Santorum’s youngest daughter, Isabella Santorum, is on her way to recovery following a bout with pneumonia that caused her to be hospitalized and her father to call off his campaign schedule in Florida.

“The last four, five hours, she has just made a great turn,” Santorum said Sunday night on a tele-town hall hosted by Tea Party Patriots.

{mosads}But Santorum will not return to Florida in the final days before Tuesday’s primary as his campaign had said he intended to do, opting instead for campaign events in other states.

Santorum missed his scheduled slot to appear on the call, where Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney also laid out their plans for cutting government spending, but joined about 20 minutes later — telling listeners he was doing the call from his daughter’s hospital room in Philadelphia.

Santorum’s campaign announced Saturday that the former Pennsylvania senator and his wife were admitting their 3-year-old daughter to the hospital. Isabella Santorum was born with a chromosomal disorder that causes developmental abnormalities and kills more than half of infants with the condition within a week of birth.

Santorum did not appear on the campaign trail as scheduled Saturday, instead dispatching his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and campaign surrogates to appear in his place. His campaign said Saturday he would return to Florida as soon as possible.

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But on Sunday, the campaign announced that Santorum will be campaigning in Missouri and Minnesota on Monday, and will spend Florida’s election day in Colorado and Las Vegas. Nevada is the next state to hold a primary contest after Florida.

Unable to compete financially with the front-runners in the expensive Sunshine state, Santorum has focused his efforts on upcoming states where the retail politics that helped him surge to a first-place finish in Iowa are more effective. He has dismissed any suggestion that he might drop out of the race if he performs poorly in Florida.

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