AppId is over the quota
Richard Perry/The New York TimesMitt Romney on Saturday at the Old Salt restaurant in Hampton, N.H., before rushing back to Iowa, where polls suggest that he will do better than once expected. 
INDIANOLA, Iowa — The Republican presidential candidates spent the final day of the year jostling for a large share of undecided voters on Saturday, with the cast of former front-runners fighting to not be left behind when the contest to pick a challenger to President Obama begins on Tuesday.
A one-stop destination for the latest political news — from The Times and other top sources. Plus opinion, polls, campaign data and video.
Newt Gingrich, who is trying to recapture the lead, at Tish's Restaurant in Council Bluffs, Iowa. A confident Mitt Romney presented himself as the party’s strongest nominee, declaring, “This is an election to save the soul of America.” Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania urged Republicans to follow their conscience: “Lead and be bold. If you do, you will change the tenor of this race.” And Gov. Rick Perry of Texas sought to stir up last-minute doubts about his rivals.
The volatility of the race was underscored by a new Des Moines Register poll released on Saturday evening indicating that Mr. Romney and Representative Ron Paul of Texas were essentially tied, with Mr. Santorum showing momentum. The poll found that 41 percent of voters who said that they planned to attend the caucuses could still change their minds.
The poll found Mr. Romney with 24 percent; Mr. Paul at 22 percent; Mr. Santorum with 15 percent; the former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, at 12 percent; Mr. Perry at 11 percent; and Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota at 7 percent. The poll, which was conducted Tuesday through Friday, has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
The Register’s Iowa Poll, which is the most closely watched political survey in the state, found that Mr. Santorum appears to have gained significant ground in recent days. If he is able to consolidate support from social conservatives and win over undecided voters, the outcome of the contest could shift in the final hours of the race here.
“Momentum is with Santorum,” said J. Ann Selzer, who conducts the Iowa Poll. “This has been an interesting rodeo all along, but everything just got much more energetic.”
With the first voting of the Republican contest only three days away, Mr. Paul was the only contender who returned home for a reprieve from campaigning. His spokesman said that Mr. Paul was comfortable with his decision. “If other candidates feel they need to hound Iowans during a holiday weekend,” the spokesman said, “then they haven’t done their jobs during the past year.”
But the drumbeat of criticism against Mr. Paul has intensified in recent day as his foreign policy views have drawn more scrutiny from his rivals.
The Iowa Poll showed that Mr. Santorum’s wave of support could be at Mr. Paul’s expense. During the final two days the poll was taken, Mr. Santorum climbed to 21 percent, while Mr. Paul fell to 18 percent and Mr. Romney remained the same. That two-day survey has a margin of error of 6 percentage points.
The first chapter of the Republican campaign was drawing to a frenzied close against a backdrop of a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign. Mr. Romney asked voters to take the long-term view, saying, “We’ll go to Washington with a mandate to make sure we get this country back on the right track.” But Mr. Santorum and other rivals urged Republicans not to settle for an imperfect contender.
“I know of a candidate a few weeks ago who was acting like he’d won the contest. It didn’t turn out that way,” Mr. Santorum said, suggesting that a coronation for Mr. Romney might not be in the cards. “There’s a long way to go, long way to go.”
The Iowa caucuses on Tuesday night do not assign a single delegate, but the outcome is likely to help determine the length of the fight for the nomination. And with a large share of the voters saying they remain open to changing their minds, the contest here is lurching to an unpredictable close.
Mr. Gingrich instructed voters to disregard polls, calling the final hours of the Iowa campaign a “wild and woolly” period where anything could happen. And Mrs. Bachmann, whose fortunes have fallen sharply, vowed to remain in the race whatever the results, declaring, “I’m the lady for winning!”
Katharine Q. Seelye contributed reporting from Hampton, N.H.; Trip Gabriel from Council Bluffs, Iowa; and Susan Saulny from Urbandale, Iowa.
No comments:
Post a Comment