Afternoon Fix: Pro-Santorum super PAC launches $200k Iowa ad buy

A pro-Santorum super PAC goes up with a big Iowa buy; Matheson seeking reelection; Paul attacks Newt on deferments; and Obama falters among young voters.

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WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:

* A super PAC supporting Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign — the Red, White and Blue Fund — is up with a $200,000 ad buy in Iowa pitching the former Pennsylvania senator as the true conservative in the race. The large buy is the first pro-Santorum TV advertising to date.

* Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) announced today that he would run for reelection in the state’s new 4th congressional district. He had also been considering running for governor or for the 2nd district. He currently represents the 2nd, but the GOP overhauled the congressional map and left him without a great option. The new conservative-leaning district is less Republican than other parts of the state, but Republicans note that two-thirds of it is new territory for Matheson. Still, the Matheson name polls pretty strongly statewide for the former governor’s son. His decision is a big break for House Democrats, who otherwise had little hope of holding one of the state’s congressional seats, and the Republican Governors Association, which might have had to play in Utah if Matheson had run for governor.

* Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) is out with a new poll showing her tied with Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) at 45 percent. A GOP-drawn redistricting map pitted the two against each other, and now that it looks like the map will definitely pass, the two are set for a rare Republican-versus-Democrat matchup of incumbents.

* Politico is reporting that casino executive Sheldon Adelson has committed to supplying a pro-New Gingrich super PAC with $20 million — a sum that would certainly change the game in the GOP nominating contest. The report says Adelson has not decided which outside group to send the money to. But his spokesman denies that there is any such commitment. “There’s no truth to any speculation that Mr. Adelson has made a commitment to either contribute or raise” $20 million, spokesman Ron Reese told the Post. And a source close to the Gingrich camp tells the Post that “maybe he’s committing to raise $20 million, but I don’t believe he’s going to write him a check for $20 million. He doesn’t operate that way.”

WHAT YOU SHOULDN’T MISS:

* Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) today attacked Gingrich on the draft deferment he got during the Vietnam War, when Gingrich was in graduate school. “He chose not to go. Now he’ll send our kids to war,” Paul said. “I see that as important information. People should know that.” Paul recently launched an ad in Iowa hitting Gingrich for his “serial hypocrisy.”

* President Obama’s approval rating among 18-to-29 year olds has dropped to its lowest mark yet, 46 percent, in a new Harvard Institute of Politics survey. But he still has an 11-point lead on Mitt Romney and a 16-point lead on Gingrich.

* Former congressman Tom Perriello (D-Va.) has joined the liberal think thank Center for American Progress, leading its political action committee.

* The White House is attacking a new Medicare plan spearheaded by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), repeating the Democratic charge made against Ryan’s original plan that it “would end Medicare as we know it.”

THE FIX MIX:

Glass relaxation.

With Chris Cillizza.