“Newt’s got a lot of baggage,” said Betty Peterson, an 85-year-old retiree in Clear Lake. If Gingrich were the Republican nominee, Peterson said, the Democrats would not “let it go.”

That word, “baggage,” came up frequently in conversations with Iowa voters over the past few days. In a few dozen interviews with Iowa voters, several repeated the line or some form of it.

Maybe that’s because it’s the refrain of an attack ad being run by a super PAC supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Restore Our Future…

“He’s got too much baggage,” said Jan Hendrickson, a Sac County resident, at another Santorum event on Thursday. She supports Santorum and says after that it “drops off” — no other candidate is close. She’s not sure why other people accept Gingrich’s past work or his infidelity.