A conservative political group is shelling out nearly $1 million to soften the image of Senator Santorum of Pennsylvania in the hope of boosting his standing with female voters and saving his Senate seat for the Republican Party.

Softer Voices, an organization that touted security and terrorism issues to women during the 2004 campaign, is now running television ads emphasizing Mr. Santorum’s role as an early advocate for and author of welfare-towork legislation.

Mr. Santorum’s Democratic opponent, Robert Casey Jr., does not support the so-called welfare reform bill signed by President Clinton in 1996.

“We love this issue,” a former speechwriter for Vice President Quayle and founder of Softer Voices, Lisa Schiffren, told The New York Sun. “It’s really important for conservatives to remember and for voters to remember that welfare reform was a conservative issue and that people like Rick Santorum made it happen and that people like Bill Clinton signed that bill kicking and screaming.”

Two ads sponsored by Softer Voices feature a former welfare recipient hired by Mr. Santorum in 1995, Bylly Jo Morton.

“I was really hopeless, basically,” Ms. Morton declares in the TV ads. “Senator Santorum was looking to hire someone who was on welfare and give them an opportunity to do something better with their life. And that was me.”

Ms. Morton went on to earn three college degrees and now works as a teacher at a public school near Harrisburg, Pa.

One version of the ad is entirely positive. Another version chides Mr. Casey for opposing welfare reform. Both include gauzy images of Ms. Morton and her children sitting in a park.

A poll of likely voters conducted earlier this month by Quinnipiac University showed Mr. Casey leading Mr. Santorum, 51% to 39%. While Mr. Santorum trailed by 9% among men, he lagged by 16% among women.

Ms. Schiffren, who is best known for Mr. Quayle’s 1992 speech accusing Hollywood of using a television series, “Murphy Brown,” to glamorize single motherhood, said Mr. Santorum is suffering from women’s perceptions that he is rigid and unforgiving. “Women in general don’t like to feel they’re being mean by voting for a candidate who occasionally sounds too sure of himself and takes moral positions that can be off-putting,” she said.

In his book published past year, “It Takes a Family,” Mr. Santorum blamed “radical feminism” for encouraging mothers to work rather than stay at home with their children.

Ms. Schiffren, who lives in Manhattan, said she was untroubled by such statements but acknowledged that they have hurt Mr. Santorum with women. “It’s easy to twist that — and it’s been twisted,” she said.

In the matter of a few days last month, Softer Voices managed to raise $925,000. The largest gift, $400,000, came from Dr. John Templeton Jr. of Bryn Mawr, Pa. Dr.Templeton is a son of one of the world’s most successful mutual fund managers, John Templeton, 93.

Dr. Templeton declined to be interviewed for this article, but sent the Sun a statement saying he supports Softer Voices “because of its public service educational mission in addressing important but often neglected stories.”

“Bylly Jo’s message is a true story that needs to be told,” Dr. Templeton wrote.

Dr. Templeton has given about $1 million in the past four years to the College Republican National Committee and has supported other conservative causes, including groups that pilloried Senator Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign, Progress for America and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Dr. Templeton, a retired pediatric surgeon, now serves as president of a foundation established by his father and made about $108,000 in that capacity in 2004, according to federal tax filings.

Under federal law, Mr. Templeton, who gave $440 million to the foundation in 2004, cannot donate to American political campaigns. The Tennessee native renounced his American citizenship in 1968 and moved to the Bahamas in a bid to avoid taxes on the several billion dollars he reportedly made from his investment empire.

The Templeton Foundation funds research that seeks common ground between religion and science. The fund has drawn fire for supporting scholars who back the anti-evolution theory known as intelligent design, but foundation officials denied promoting the concept.

Others weighing into the Pennsylvania Senate race through gifts to Softer Voices include the founder of Brandywine Funds, Foster Friess of Jackson Hole, Wyo., who gave $250,000, a banana and insurance magnate, Carl Lindner of Cincinnati, who gave $150,000, and a real estate developer who specializes in distressed properties, Robin Arkley of Eureka, Calif., who chipped in $100,000.

While the directors of Softer Voices are women, all five donors to the group this year are men. In 2004, the organization raised about $697,000 for ads supporting President Bush in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.The group is known as a “527” organization after the section of the tax code under which it was organized.

Mr. Bush has called for a ban on such groups, which are required to operate independently of candidates and political parties. Nevertheless, 527s remain active.

A Democratic-leaning 527, the Lantern Project, has raised more than $1.6 million for ads undercutting Mr. Santorum. The organization seemed to be gearing down recently because of limits on ads paid for by unions or corporations in the 60 days before an election. However, the anti-Santorum group rolled out more ads late last month thanks in part to a $100,000 gift from the founder of Progressive Insurance, Peter Lewis of Mayfield Village, Ohio.

A spokesman for Mr. Casey, Larry Smar, did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

In 2002, Mr. Casey told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he viewed Democratic support for so-called welfare reform legislation as a mistake.

“I couldn’t have voted for that,” the Democratic candidate said.”You were saying, ‘Let’s make people more selfsufficient,’ but you weren’t giving them the tools to do that. … A lot of Democrats nationally and in the state say, ‘You’re crazy.We should be able to move in that other direction,’ but I just don’t agree with them.”