By JAMES O'TOOLE, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The campaign of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is now surveying a broader political map than the one it saw before the trio of upsets Tuesday that sent the latest tremor through the predictably unpredictable Republican presidential nomination battle.

ROCKWELL CITY, Iowa - With just a few shopping days before caucuses, GOP candidates are stepping up their retail, wholesale and personal sales pitches in a race that remains very much up in the air.

"It's wide open," Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad observed, as he reflected on the race last week after an appearance in a town that bills itself as "The Golden Buckle on the Corn Belt."

PITTSBURGH - Sen. Arlen Specter, seeking his sixth term and his first as a Democrat, will try in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary to extend a record tenure in the Senate in the face of a challenge from Rep. Joe Sestak.

Specter roiled state and national politics a year ago when he switched parties, unwilling, as he said, to submit his re-election to a jury of Republican primary voters.

After a career that's taken him through two parties, five terms, 30 years and thousands of votes, it was inevitable that the story of this Senate election would be all about Arlen Specter.

DENVER -- The newly crowned Democratic ticket heads to Beaver, Pa., Friday for the first joint campaign appearance on what they are calling the "On the Road to Change" bus tour of battleground states.