Romney edges out Santorum in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney hugs his wife Ann as he appeared at his Iowa Caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa, January 3, 2012. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Mitt Romney yesterday won the first battle in the Republican Party’s Iowa caucuses for the 2012 White House race, taking Iowa by a razor-thin margin to defeat Christian conservative Rick Santorum by just eight votes.
 
The former Massachusetts governor won 30,015 votes in Tuesday’s Republican nominating contest over 30,007 for Santorum, Iowa officials announced after the two men slugged it out to a nail-biting photo-finish.

Romney said he’s looking forward to a long nomination race as he edged Santorum by the narrowest of margins in the Iowa caucuses. Romney spoke as a Republican official said that Sen. John McCain, planned to endorse Romney, a signal from the 2008 Republican presidential nominee to the rest of the party to rally around the former Massachusetts governor. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the endorsement and requested anonymity to discuss it. Romney and Santorum ended with 25 percent each, Ron Paul stood at 21 percent, and former House speaker Newt Gingrich led the second tier of candidates with about 13 percent of the vote. Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum declared that his strong Iowa showing means it’s “game on” for the party’s presidential nomination and that he’s heading to New Hampshire for round two. “Thank you so much, Iowa, for standing up and not compromising, by standing up and being bold,” Santorum told cheering backers.
The former senator from Pennsylvania based his showing on strong backing from the evangelicals and social conservatives who play an important role in the state’s Republican politics. Romney, a millionaire venture capitalist, said he and Santorum each had “a great victory” and congratulated Representative Ron Paul on his third-place finish. “This has been a failed presidency,” Romney said late Jan. 3, in a variation of the stump speech he used in Iowa, calling President Barack Obama “in over his head” and vowing that his private-sector experience makes him better suited than Obama to create jobs in a downtrodden economy.

Texas Governor Rick Perry announced he would return to his home state to decide whether to keep running, while Representative Michele Bachmann vowed to fight on despite her woeful sixth place finish. Iowa is an unreliable predictor of presidential fortunes: Senator John McCain, the eventual nominee in 2008, came in fourth that year. The result means Romney’s performance in New Hampshire, which holds the nation’s first primary next Tuesday, is more critical than ever. His campaign long has said he’ll need to do well there in order to win the Republican nomination.
Unlike Iowa, he’s maintained a strong lead in New Hampshire for months. Surveys consistently show him with more than 40 percent support, far ahead of his closest rivals. Santorum has polled in single digits.

Compiled from AFP and AP stories by the Daily News staff.