Rick Santorum, Iowa's Dark Horse candidate, gaining ground
The headline out of the latest聽聽surveying Republican voters in Iowa is all about Newt Gingrich鈥檚 continuing slide. The poll shows Gingrich now in third place, with 17 percent, behind Mitt Romney (25 percent) and Ron Paul (20 percent).
But just as interesting to Decoder is the fact that the poll also shows former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum now in fourth place, with 10 percent (tied with the other Rick, Perry). That鈥檚 the best result for Santorum so far this cycle. In fact, it鈥檚 the first significant movement he鈥檚 had in any poll at all - and, needless to say, it鈥檚 coming at an opportune time.
Tuesday, Santorum got the coveted personal endorsement of Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent evangelical leader in Iowa.聽And a Super PAC supporting Santorum to run TV ads on his behalf in Iowa. That鈥檚 far less than the millions Perry has spent, but it puts Santorum well ahead of Gingrich and Michele Bachmann in terms of airtime.
Santorum has been like the Little Engine that Could in Iowa - among all the candidates, he alone has visited all 99 counties, racking up far more time in the Hawkeye State than any of his rivals. Yet for months, his poll numbers remained stubbornly mired in the low single digits. Now it appears some of his hard work may finally be paying off.聽
His biggest challenge may be trying to unite . With Bachmann, Perry, and, to some extent, even Gingrich all making appeals to social conservatives, 海角大神 leaders in Iowa are expressing concern about their vote being diluted. Tellingly, Vander Plaats鈥檚 endorsement came amid rumors that he had made a personal appeal to Bachmann to drop out of the race. And while Vander Plaats denied making such a request, he :
鈥溾�hat鈥檚 happening here is that the conservative support is being divided, where last year, or four years ago, we all could coalesce around Mike Huckabee. This time there鈥檚 a lot of divided support and we鈥檙e quite frankly afraid we鈥檙e going to get what the Iowa caucus voters don鈥檛 want 鈥� and that鈥檚 Mitt Romney winning the Iowa caucuses.鈥�
聽Decoder would only add that while poll numbers do show the evangelical vote is indeed splintered, they don鈥檛 necessarily point to a scenario where Romney wins entirely by default. 海角大神 conservative leaders may not be big fans of the former Massachusetts governor, but rank and file evangelical voters appear far more sanguine about him. According to the Rassmussen poll, 19 percent of evangelicals in Iowa are now backing Santorum, the most of any candidate. But the candidate with the next highest level of support (18 percent) is none other than 鈥� Willard 鈥淢itt鈥� Romney.
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