Lobbying links belie Santorum's outsider image On the campaign trail, Rick Santorum has been portraying himself as a man of the people: the grandson of a hard-scrabble immigrant coalminer, a Washington outsider with blue-collar credentials. "I'm coming to change the entire nature of Washington DC," Mr Santorum has repeatedly said in television interviews and on campaign stops leading up to this week's 10 Super Tuesday contests, when he is trying to win in states including Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee. After coming under sustained attack from Mitt Romney's campaign, the former Republican congressman and senator representing Pennsylvania now describes himself as "someone who was inside Washington who was an outsider when he was inside." But this representation omits a crucial fact - that after his 16 years in Congress came to an embarrassing end when he lost his US Senate seat in 2006, Mr Santorum remained immersed in the business of the capital. He was not technically a lobbyist, but he worked as a consultant for lobbying firms in Washington, using his connections to earn millions over the last five years. He moved his family to the leafy Washington DC suburb of Great Falls, Virginia, the year after he lost his seat. "It's very popular to be an outsider and say "I'm not part of that system" but in fact Rick Santorum is very much part of this system," says Kathy Kiely of the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit congressional watchdog. During 2006, his last year in Congress, Mr Santorum declared earning just under $200,000 from his Senate salary and book royalties. But by the time he launched his presidential nomination bid last year, he was earning much bigger pay cheques, raking in at least $1.3m between January 2010 and August 2011 for his work for lobbying firms, on boards and as a pundit on Fox News. According to the financial disclosure form he filed when he began running for the nomination, Mr Santorum earned $65,000 in income for "consultant compensation" during that 20-month period from American Continental Group. Mr Santorum also reported earning $125,000 for consulting work for the Clapham Group and $142,500 in consulting fees from Consol Energy, the Pennsylvania oil and gas company. "These are all lobbying entities and they were hiring Santorum's Rolodex," says Craig Holman, the government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, a watchdog group. Mr Santorum was also on the board of Universal Health Services, earning almost $400,000 in directors" fees and stock options before he stepped down to run for the presidency. Tony Pantaleoni, a fellow board member, says Mr Santorum's background in the Senate was a major asset. "Knowing who the right people are to talk to, finding out what their concerns are, it was very helpful because he knew," Mr Pantaleoni told ABC News. We were very glad with his service. Mr Santorum is not the only candidate to come under scrutiny for his post-Congressional activities. Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, has also been criticised for earning as much as $1.6m from Freddie Mac, the controversial mortgage giant. John Brabender, Mr Santorum's campaign manager, says the candidate's record in Congress spoke for itself, citing his role in cracking down on government waste, including getting taxpayer subsidies for Congressmen's haircuts scrapped, and for launching a "spendometer" to keep track on budgets. On his activities since he left the Senate, Mr Brabender said: "If he wanted to, the senator would have become a lobbyist and he would have made significant money, but he chose not to." In his role as a political analyst on Fox, he often spoke about abuses in Washington, he added. "I'm sure there are opponents of his who want to rewrite the record but he was not afraid to criticise people when it was needed," Mr Brabender said. Ethics monitors are not convinced. "It's hypocritical that Senator Santorum is so quick to complain about Washington when he lives here and works here and makes his money as an influence peddler here," says Melanie Sloan, director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. He may be wearing a sweater vest and pretending to be from Pennsylvania, but he's really only a high-priced Washington lobbyist.