Battle of the Broods: Romney's Clan vs. Santorum's Seven

Jan. 5, 2011 -- intro:

Historically it has not been unusual for presidents to have six or more children, but in the past two decades, one or two presidential kids has been the norm. But if one of the top two finishers in the Iowa caucuses wins the White House, that will change.

Both former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum have led their large broods across the country over the past 12 months -– Romney with five boys and Santorum with seven children.

Candidates with worse finishes in Iowa -– like Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman –- also have large families.

Earlier ABC Newsasked the question, does a bigger family come with a big advantage for candidates? Read on to find out about how Romney and Santorum's clans have helped out on the campaign trail.

quicklist: 1title: The Eldesttext:

In both the 2008 election and this election season, Tagg Romney, 41, has provided color for the Romney campaign without losing its wholesome frame. Just this week, he revealed the Romney family tradition for watching the Iowa caucuses: the seven of them enjoy chocolate milkshakes.

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quicklist: 2title: The Class Clowntext:

Middle child Josh Romney, 40, has a Twitter account with a sometimes humorous take on the presidential race. In addition to solemn side notes on his father's campaign, it includes wit and sarcasm in the vein of the @jon2012girls. On Monday he tweeted a photo of himself with his father and Sen. John Thune, captioned, "I'm the ugly one in the middle." Another snarky comment came following an event he held for young professionals in D.C. where Occupy Wall Street protesters appeared: "The OWS chant at my event last night: 'Great hair doesn't mean you care.' Slam."

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quicklist: 3title: The Missing Romneytext:

On a recent trip through New Hampshire, four of the Romney brothers spoke with reporters and mingled with seniors at a retirement home, but one was missing. Ben Romney, 33, is more out of the picture than his older brothers. University of Utah's School of Medicine lists him as one of their Radiology Residents with a bio that says he enjoys "family, skiing, sports, [and] music."

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quicklist: 4title: Boys Will Be Boystext:

Not all the publicity the Romney boys have brought to their father's campaign has been good. A glaring spotlight fell on Tagg in November when liberal blog Think Progress accused father and son of being associated with a company under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission for being "a massive Ponzi scheme." The Romneys dismissed these accusations, but Think Progress did not back down.

Matt Romney, 36, brought some negative attention to his father's campaign when he joked that Mitt Romney would release his tax returns when the president released his college grades and birth certificate. His older brother rushed in to say this sentiment did not come from their father, and Matt later recanted in a tweet saying, "I repeated a dumb joke. My bad."

It's one of only two tweets the account has released.

Last campaign cycle, the Romney boys were even more involved in promoting their father's story. They wrote regularly in a blog called the Five Brothers blog, but not this time around. Now they're content to stick to Twitter and the campaign trail.

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