By John McCormick and Lisa Lerer - Jan 4, 2012 3:47 PM GMT+0700
Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney scored a narrow win in yesterday's Iowa caucuses, state Republican officials announced, edging out former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania by eight votes. Olivia Sterns reports on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown." (Source: Bloomberg)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, speaks as his wife Ann Romney and their sons (L-R) Josh, Matt, Craig and Tagg look on at the Hotel Fort Des Moines on the night of the Iowa Caucuses January 3, 2012 in Des Moines, Iowa. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images
The opening contest in the Republican presidential race ended in a near tie between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, tangling the path forward as the contest moves to New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and business executive, defeated Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, by just eight votes in yesterday’s Iowa caucuses, state Republican Chairman Matt Strawn announced early today. Strawn said Romney received 30,015 votes to 30,007 for Santorum. That gave each a little less than 25 percent out of more than 122,000 votes cast.
After running a stealth campaign in Iowa for much of the past year, Romney failed to achieve the decisive victory he sought in the closing days of the caucus campaign. Santorum made up for having the fewest resources of any of Romney’s rivals by campaigning in all of Iowa’s 99 counties in a pickup truck.
Santorum, who emphasized his commitment to social conservative causes, made a late surge in Iowa and managed to sidetrack Romney’s chances of a quick knockout in the nomination race.
U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas, who stresses libertarian and pro-state rights positions, ran third with about 21 percent of the vote, according to a tally by the Associated Press. He was about 3,800 votes behind Santorum and Romney.
Other Candidates
The top trio were followed by former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 13 percent, Texas Governor Rick Perry with 10 percent and U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota with 5 percent. Perry told supporters in Iowa last night he was returning to Texas today to assess whether to continue his candidacy; Gingrich and Bachmann pledged to continue their quests.
The results revealed a divided party, still undecided over whether to compromise fiscal and social conservative ideology for a candidate -- Romney -- who polls show is better positioned to attract the independent voters needed to beat President Barack Obama in the 2012 general election.
“Thank you so much Iowa,” Santorum told supporters in Iowa early today, before the final result was known. “By standing up and not compromising, by standing up and being bold and leading, leading with that burden and responsibility you have to be first, you have taken the first step of taking back this country.”
Romney, 64, congratulated Santorum, 53, and Paul, 76, in his comments to Iowa supporters, also before the last votes were counted.
‘Great Victory’
“We don’t know what the final vote tally is going to be, but congratulations to Rick Santorum. This has been a great victory for him,” he told supporters. “We also feel it’s been a great victory for us here.”
“Ron Paul has had a great night,” he continued. “All three of us will be campaigning very hard to make sure that we restore the heart and soul of the entire nation.”
Romney got close to the same number of votes he received in his failed 2008 bid for the Republican nomination. In that race, he was backed by 29,949 voters.
Romney lost the caucuses four years ago to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee who was able to consolidate the support of evangelical Christians, a major force in the state’s Republican Party.
Senator John McCain of Arizona ended up winning the 2008 Republican nomination. McCain is set to endorse Romney today, the AP reported, citing unnamed people.
While not a clear-cut victory for Romney, the Iowa results mean that two of his main opponents in New Hampshire’s Jan. 10 primary will be men who face doubts among many Republicans that they would be strong general-election candidates, polling shows. Santorum and Paul also must show that they can mobilize widespread support in primary contests, where turnout is much larger than in a caucus.
Romney, though, will face a challenge for the more moderate voters in the New Hampshire race from Jon Huntsman Jr.. The former Utah governor skipped Iowa and has focused his campaign on New Hampshire; he held his 150th event in the state yesterday.
No Republican who has won both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary has failed to become the party’s presidential candidate.
In his Iowa remarks, Romney attempted to play down the results by stressing the more minimal effort he made in Iowa this year.
“When I ran four years ago we had 42 members of our full- time staff,” he said. “This time we had five.”
Vacation Home
Romney, who owns a New Hampshire vacation home and is well known to its voters from his time as governor of neighboring Massachusetts and his failed 2008 presidential bid, heads to the state having consistently led in polls of likely primary voters. He was backed by 43 percent in a Suffolk University/7NEWS two- day tracking poll of likely voters in the New Hampshire primary released yesterday, while Santorum was at 5 percent.
Paul was second in the poll, with 16 percent, while Huntsman was third with 10 percent.
The New Hampshire contest is followed by primaries on Jan. 21 in South Carolina and Florida on Jan. 31.
Paul’s third-place finish in Iowa followed his prediction late last week that he would finish first or second. He was boosted by drawing in more youthful and independent-minded voters drawn to his anti-war message.
In his speech to Iowa supporters last night, Paul argued that he was among the three winners in the state.
“We will go on,” he said. “We will raise the money. I have no doubt about the volunteers. They are going to be there.”
‘Positive Campaign’
Gingrich, speaking to Iowa supporters last night as it became clear Santorum was vying for the lead, congratulated him for waging a “great positive campaign.” He added that he wished he could say that for “all of the candidates.”
Gingrich was targeted by millions of dollars of negative advertising in Iowa, much of it financed Paul’s campaign and a political action committee supporting Romney.
In vowing to press on, Gingrich said: “There will be a great debate in the Republican Party before we are prepared to have a great debate with Barack Obama.”
Republicans must decide whether they want someone who can change Washington, or a “Massachusetts moderate who in fact will be pretty good at managing the decay,” he said.
Romney has “given no evidence” during his time as governor of “any ability to change the culture or change the political structure,” Gingrich said.
Debates
In New Hampshire, the candidates will face off in two debates, one on Jan. 7 and the next Jan. 8.
The proportion of evangelical voters who participated in the caucuses was roughly similar to four years ago, according to entrance polling. Almost 6 in 10 voters consider themselves evangelical or born-again Christians, the polling showed.
Santorum won just less than a third of that group’s vote, the most of any candidate and helping fuel his surge in the days leading up to the voting.
Caucus participants were also younger and more independent than four years ago, as Paul drew in college students opposed to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Almost two-thirds of the voters said they support the Tea Party movement, according to the polling conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool of television networks and the Associated Press.
Romney’s Push
Romney had intensified his efforts in Iowa over the last month as polls showed he could win the caucuses. A skeleton staff was bolstered with workers dispatched from his headquarters in Boston, and he flooded the state’s airwaves with advertising.
Even before the results were announced, Romney was looking past Iowa and on to subsequent states. His campaign said yesterday that it was planning to start advertising in Florida, as it sought to display his national reach and fundraising strength.
The campaign in Iowa demonstrated the power of money spent by so-called Super PACs. Of the estimated $5.8 million spent on television advertising through Dec. 30, $3.7 million financed negative ads, according to the most recent data available from New York-based Kantar Media’s CMAG, a company that tracks advertising. Most of those spots were aimed at Gingrich.
The turnout of more than 122,000 voters for this year’s Republican caucuses exceeded the turnout of about 120,000 in the contest four years ago.
Democrats slightly outnumber Republicans in voter registration in Iowa, while independents outnumber both parties. Four years ago, then-Senator Obama of Illinois defeated then- Senator Hillary Clinton of New York in the Democratic caucuses, a victory that propelled him toward the White House amid turnout that was roughly twice as large as what Republicans saw yesterday. He faced no challenge in the Democratic caucuses last night.
To contact the reporters on this story: John McCormick in West Des Moines, Iowa, at jmccormick16@bloomberg.net; Lisa Lerer in West Des Moines, Iowa at llerer@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment