We told you this would be a theme of the 12th District congressional race: the Mark Critz campaign has announced another labor endorsement in their run against fellow Democrat Jason Altmire, this time from the Laborers District Council of Western Pennsylvania, which organizes 33 counties on the left side of the state.

“The Laborers endorse Mark Critz for Congress because he has not wavered when it comes to standing up for workers and fighting to create jobs,” the group's president/business manager Phil Ameris said in a prepared statement. “Mark has shown political courage and is willing to stand up for working families in the face of fierce opposition from special interest groups in Washington. That is why we are proud to stand with Mark Critz in this important campaign.”

Full statement after the jump:

That didn't take long. We said yesterday that Rick Santorum was poised to hit back at SC frontrunner Mitt Romney for his negative ads (after the camp told the Weekly Standard last week they probably wouldn't go negative) and sure enough the campaign launched a new attack ad statewide in South Carolina today. It's called "Easy Answer." Here's the script:

Obama supported the Wall Street bailouts... So did Romney.

Obama gave us radical Obamacare... that was based on Romneycare.

Obama's a liberal on social issues.

Romney once bragged he's even more liberal than Ted Kennedy on social issues.

Why would we ever vote for someone who is just like Obama?

When we can unite around Rick Santorum. And beat Obama.

Meanwhile, Romney is getting helped by Newt Gingrich, argues Jonathan Martin at Politico. The more Santorum/Gingrich squabble, the more the anybody-but-Romney crowd is weakened.

Most accounts call last night's debate more or less a draw, but in one instance Santorum scored a hit on Gingrich over Social Security, writes longtime Santorum fan Jennifer Rubin at the WashPost. Her conclusion:

So far voters have been very insistent on pinning candidates on details and have shown determination to reduce the debt. Santorum, if he wants to pull ahead of Gingrich, should pound away at the notion that Gingrich is interested in spinning interesting ideas but is entirely ill-equipped to accomplish them and to govern. That's accurate, and I think the voters understand that as well.

Here's some good news for the Santorum camp going into Saturday's primary and (maybe) beyond: billionaire Wyoming investor Foster Friess has committed up to a half-million dollars in matching funds for a pro-Santorum Super PAC. From the Center for Public Integrity:

Friess made his fortune running mutual funds and is a keen stock picker. He's a veteran supporter of conservative causes, a born-again Christian and an ally of the much-richer Koch brothers, wealthy industrialists who bankroll many conservative causes. Friess said he'd called several wealthy friends to urge them to back Santorum, a former Pennsylvania congressman and senator, by helping the super PAC.

Santorum has also picked up the endorsement of conservative direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie (RickSantorum.com)

His (7-stop) schedule for the day is after the jump:

Pittsburgh will be getting another Democratic primary battle over a city House seat, starring two old combatants.

Ed Gainey (right), the chair of the city's Democratic committee and a development aide to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, announced this morning that he will again take on 24th District incumbent Joe Preston of Homewood this spring. Gainey, 41, of Lincoln-Lemington, came within 1.3 points of toppling Preston in 2006 and tried to oust him in 2004 too before a paperwork screwup kept him off the ballot.

Given his party role one would think that Gainey could get the Democratic endorsement in the race, but he had that in 2006 too. In that year and most others there has been a crowded field facing Preston, who has served three decades in the House, so we'll be watching if that happens again this year. (We said the same yesterday when Mark Purcell of Ross announced he's challenging state Rep. Adam Ravenstahl again.)

UPDATE: We just talked to Gainey and he argues the new, post-reapportionment makeup of the 24th district should benefit him, as it moves further west taking up more parts of Stanton Heights, Bloomfield, Friendship, Garfield and Shadyside. (New district lines in blue; old in green.) Chris Briem also has an old map showing how Gainey did vs Preston in 2006, which seemed to help Gainey's argument: the incumbent cleaned up in his Homewood base, but the further west the district went, the better for Gainey.

A full statement from Gainey's campaign is after the jump:

Early Returns readers know all about the repeated efforts by the conservative Club For Growth (in four Pittsburgh area TV ads) to criticize Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, as a "liberal congressman." In his blog at The Hill, communications exec John Feehery (a former spokesman for Republicans Dennis Hastert and Tom DeLay) throws cold water on the efforts, saying the attacks could open the 18th District for a Democratic takeover:

Similarly, the Club for Growth is attacking Rep. Tim Murphy. Murphy is another reliable conservative vote. He doesn’t rock the boat, he doesn’t lead insurrections from the left, he doesn’t vote for tax increases. He did throw a vote or two to labor, but he did that because labor is kind of a big deal in Pennsylvania. If you don’t believe me, ask Rick Santorum why he voted against right-to-work legislation. If Murphy loses the primary, Republicans will lose the seat.

UPDATE 10:40 a.m. The Club's spox notes Feehery wrote a similar defense of Arlen Specter in 2009, saying "Pat Toomey may be ideologically pure, but he can’t win in Pennsylvania."