NEW ORLEANS -- One of the biggest threads of the 2010 midterm elections has been whether Republicans will stay unified enough to win back one or both chambers of Congress. That storyline reared its head today on Day Three of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.

The split between the national party and conservatives around the country blew up a year ago when Florida Gov. Charlie Crist was endorsed minutes after announcing his Senate candidacy, despite the presence of a conservative primary opponent named Marco Rubio.

The recent flurry of criticism for Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and his handling of the committee's spending has not helped matters either. Steele will speak later today, and -- if the questions former Sen. Rick Santorum got during the Q-and-A session he held following his speech are any indication -- Steele is going to have a mixed reception.

Despite the name, some conference-goers said they don't consider themselves Republicans and would be happy to support a candidate of any party -- as long as they have similar principles and beliefs.

A couple of these people spoke up during the Q-and-A session with Santorum. The first audience member to speak asked Santorum why he and former President George W. Bush endorsed Sen. Arlen Specter, then a Republican, over conservative Rep. Pat Toomey in the 2004 Pennsylvania Senate primary.

"So many of us want to give money to the RNC but we won't anymore because we want to pick and choose our candidates -- because the RNC would choose Specter over Toomey," she said.

Well, Toomey's running again, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee endorsed Specter a year ago before he switched parties. It also withheld an endorsement of Toomey until former Gov. Tom Ridge decided not to run.

Santorum defended the decision, saying he based it on the fact that two Supreme Court seats were about to open up and -- with a small majority in the Senate -- he wanted to ensure Bush's nominees were approved. What he didn't say was that as the NRSC decided in 2009, in 2004 Specter's politics appeared to be a better fit for the state.

In the wake of the 2008 elections, that's why the NRSC backed Crist over the more conservative Rubio. It's a decision NRSC Chairman John Cornyn regrets, but the principle is one both parties will continue to follow. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour even emphasized it in his speech today and said the party needs to be open to candidates all along the Republican end of the political spectrum.

Barbour, who now chairs the Republican Governors Association and led the RNC in 1994, also stressed that unity is critical to the party's chances in November.

"This message of unity is so important and we cannot let ourselves be torn apart of the idea of purity," said Barbour. "In a two-party system, both parties are necessary coalitions, and we want our coalition to drive our policies."

"How do we in in 2010?" Barbour added. "We stick together."

Santorum urged Tea Party members to run against Republicans in primaries, and Barbour maintained that whoever wins the primaries "will be our candidate." That's part of the outreach to the Tea Party that has laced most of the major speeches over the last three days.

"The Democrats' fondest hope is to see the Tea Party or other conservatives split off and start a third party," said Barbour. "Barack Obama is...praying for the conservative vote to be split in 2010. We can't let that happen. We've got to stay unified."