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Iowa Caucus Results

January 4, 2012 by · Comments Off on Iowa Caucus Results 

Iowa Caucus ResultsIowa Caucus Results, Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney eked out a narrow victory over former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in the Iowa caucuses Tuesday, winning the first contest for the Republican presidential nomination, the Hawkeye state’s Republican party chairman Matt Strawn said early Wednesday morning after a long night with the two candidates in a dead heat.

Santorum pulled off a stunning come from behind performance in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses, garnering just eight fewer votes than a much better funded and better organized Romney in the closest Iowa contest since the modern caucuses were formed in 1976.

It’s a tie so Santorum wins
“Game on,” Santorum told supporters gathered in Johnston, Iowa in what amounted to a victory speech before the results were announced.

The devout Catholic father of seven vowed to take his social conservative message to New Hampshire, which holds the first binding vote on January 10. The Iowa caucuses are non-binding.

“With your help and God’s grace, we will have another fun night a week from now,” Santorum said after offering congratulations to Romney, who now appears headed toward the nomination. Romney is widely expected to win in New Hampshire, where he owns a vacation home.

Analysis: Romney’s race to lose

If Romney wins in the Granite state, he would be the first non-incumbent president to win both Iowa and New Hampshire since their 1976 establishment as critical early states in the nominating process.

Santorum won the support of 30,007 caucus-goers, giving him 25 percent support, while Romney won 30,015 votes — also 25 percent, Strawn said.

Full Iowa results
Iowa entrance poll results
Full Republican primary results

Ron Paul finished in third place 21 percent support. Just weeks ago, Santorum was at the bottom of opinion polls.

Romney offered his congratulations to Santorum, while focusing mostly on President Obama and the general election in his remarks, also made before the final tally was announced.

“This has been a great victory for him and for his effort. He’s worked very hard in Iowa. We also feel it’s been a great victory for us here,” Romney said.

After finishing in a disappointing fifth place with 10 percent of the vote, Rick Perry told his supporters Tuesday night in Iowa he would return to his home state of Texas to “determine whether there is a path forward for me in this race.”

Santorum’s strong finish, pulled off on a shoe-string budget, validated the more than 100 days he spent engaged in retail campaigning across the state of Iowa. It also proved that conservative voters are still wary of Romney — whose resources on the campaign trail far surpassed Santorum’s — in spite of perceptions that he would be the most viable Republican presidential candidate.

Santorum thanked Iowans for “standing up and being bold and leading.”

He added, “What wins in American are bold ideas, sharp contrasts and a plan that includes everyone… A plan that says we will work together to get America to work.”

CBS News entrance polling revealed that Santorum’s supporters were looking for an authentic conservative, while Romney’s supporters were looking for a candidate who can beat President Obama.

In his own remarks Tuesday night, Romney focused on targeting Mr. Obama and promised, “I will go to work to get America back to work.”

Iowa Caucuses

January 3, 2012 by · Comments Off on Iowa Caucuses 

Iowa CaucusesIowa Caucuses, Voters in the rural state of Iowa are preparing for the first test of the US election season as they choose a Republican candidate to take on Barack Obama for the White House in November.

Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum lead a field of six contenders in a race that remains too close to call.

They are making last-ditch efforts to win over the many undecided voters.

Tuesday evening’s caucuses will involve about 120,000 Iowans gathering in homes, schools and public buildings.

Spread across some 1,700 meetings in all of Iowa’s 99 counties, the meetings see Iowans elect 28 delegates to the Republican National Convention, where the party’s eventual nominee will be anointed in Florida this August.

Spreading the message
Candidates spent Monday in a last-minute flurry of campaign events at coffee shops, pizza restaurants and hotel lobbies in an effort to to win over undecided voters.

‘First in the nation’ contest to decide each party’s nominee
46 TV ads – 35 from the campaigns themselves – have been broadcast in the state this election cycle
In 2008, about 120,000 Iowa Republicans attended caucuses
Just half of Iowa Republican winners since 1976 have gone on to become the nominee
Only three modern Iowa winners have become president: Jimmy Carter, George W Bush and Barack Obama
Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator who has surged in Iowa polls in recent days, spoke in front of a packed house at a breakfast cafe in Polk City.

Despite concentrating almost exclusively on Iowa, Mr Santorum, a social conservative who appeals to Iowa’s evangelical Christian voters, said his new-found popularity was helping his prospects for the long primary season to come.

“I would just say this – we’ve raised more money in the last few days than we’ve raised in the last few months,” he said.

He has campaigned hard in every one of Iowa’s 99 counties, impressing social conservatives with his message of rejecting gay marriage and abortion, even in cases of rape.

The beneficiary of a pre-Christmas poll surge, Texas Congressman Ron Paul restated his libertarian-leaning policies at campaign stops in Des Moines, Mason City and a series of other towns.

Mr Paul – the oldest candidate in the race, at 76 – returned to Iowa after spending the holiday weekend in Texas.

He has faced scrutiny over racially charged newsletters published in his name during the 1980s and 1990s.

Mr Paul – who wants an end to US military intervention overseas, and calls for the abolition of the Federal Reserve – said he had faith in his nationwide organisation, but conceded he needed a good result in Iowa.

A poor show in Iowa would be a “real challenge” for the campaign, he told the Associated Press. “We’ve invested a lot of time and money in doing well here.”

Front-runner
In the city of Marion, front-runner Mitt Romney – whose 2008 campaign came unstuck in Iowa – exuded confidence.

“We’re going to win this thing with all of our passion and strength,” he said, before reprising his criticism of President Obama.

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