Des Moines Register Poll: Rick Santorum Surging, Mitt Romney on Top, and Newt Gingrich Falling
EmailABC News’ Shushannah Walshe and Michael Falcone report:
OTTUMWA, Iowa– Three days before the Iowa caucuses a New Year’s Eve Des Moines Register poll shows Rick Santorum gaining momentum in Iowa, but still running behind first place finisher Mitt Romney and second-place contender Ron Paul.
Here are Saturday Night’s results:
Romney 24
Paul 22
Santorum 15
Gingrich 12
Perry 11
Bachmann 7
But, there’s an important twist that is not reflected in the instant look at the numbers. In the final two days of polling, Santorum moved ahead to second place with 21 behind Romney with 24 while Paul falls to third place with 18.
The other GOP contenders remain the same.
Santorum had finished up his fifth and final event of the day here in Ottumwa where he reacted to the results just minutes after The Register released the poll.
“We are the one who has the best chance to pick up and finish maybe even head of Mitt Romney. We still have a ways to go, but we are the one on the move and that’s pretty exciting,” Santorum told reporters who informed him of the results.
“I think we are the candidate that conservatives are starting to rally around and that I think is pretty clear from the poll that we are in the campaign with momentum and conservatives want to stop Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum is the train that is right at his heels,” Santorum said. “And to the extent that they want to send a conservative message out of Iowa I think it’s pretty clear the campaign they need to be supporting.”
Saturday night’s results closely mirror those of a poll taken just a few days ago. The NBC News/Marist poll released Friday reflects almost identical polling.
However, the latest numbers show significant shifts in the race since the newspaper’s last survey on Dec. 3.
In that poll, Gingrich was surging with 25 percent support, ahead of Ron Paul with 18 percent and Mitt Romney was third with 16 percent.
Rick Santorum was tied for last place in the poll with Rick Perry only coming in with six percent support. Technically, Jon Huntsman was last with two percent, but he’s not competing here.
The jump from last place to second represents undeniable momentum at just the right moment for the Santorum campaign.
On the other hand, Gingrich’s fall to fourth place couldn’t come at a worse time for the former House Speaker. The campaign, which has been bombarded by a steady stream of negative attacks on the airwaves, dismissed the results.
“If this is the Supebowl, then we just saw the pre-game show. But, everyone knows the real action happens after kickoff,” Gingrich’s spokesperson R.C. Hammond said in a statement.
When asked specifically about the move from third to second in the final two day period Santorum said it reflects that “people are realizing that I actually can win this.”
Santorum has consistently said on the trail that making voters realize he is electable was his goal and once that happened Iowans would rally around him.
As he left the Bridgeview Center and got into the pick-up truck he rides in from stop to stop he had a message for Iowans and contrasted himself with the former Massachusetts governor.
“There’s one candidate that is moving in and closing in and it’s time to rally around and make that happen and make sure that a conservative comes out strongly in Iowa,” Santorum said. “Mitt Romney has a lot of money and I have a lot of energy.”
ABC’s Elicia Dover contributed to this report.
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Hey you guys frogot to mention that RON PAUL was 1st in the first two days.
Rick Santorum is totally unelectable. His foreign policy is lunacy and will never be accepted by any decent American.
He admitted yesterday that the only reason we are in the middle east is to protect the oil supply.
You may be willing to have your son or daughter die in foreign wars to keep gas in your tank, but most Americans are not.
Posted by: Kaphen DePriest | December 31, 2011, 10:58 pm 10:58 pm
Ron Paul doesn’t accept his pay. He doesn’t take money from lobbyists. He’s the only U.S. Service Veteran in the field. He’s against war. He never lies or changes his beliefs. He wants to go by the Constitution. What else do you want?
Posted by: blind spot | December 31, 2011, 11:28 pm 11:28 pm
The fact is Ron Paul has a 30 year record of upholding individual freedom, rights, liberty, based on the Constitution. He opposes the corrupt over-powered Federal government with things like the privacy invasion of the TSA, the evil Patriot Act, the 4th amendment killing NDAA bill, the internet censorship bill SOPA, the racist and corrupt War on Drugs, and the unjust wars in the middle east.
Ron Paul is the only one fighting against those issues. Ron Paul is the ONLY vote that can beat Obama, pulling votes from dissatisfied Dems, the growing Independent population, and a growing portion of the Republicans. A vote for Paul is the ONLY vote for peace, prosperity and liberty.
Posted by: Mike Ikeo | January 1, 2012, 12:36 am 12:36 am
Ron Paul would bring something to the white house that’s been absent for decades, integrity.
Posted by: john locke | January 1, 2012, 12:36 am 12:36 am
Newt Gingrich Falling, thank God!
Posted by: Jim Morris | January 1, 2012, 12:57 am 12:57 am
Romney says the US is on the way to bekome like greece. ha great the US has almost exceeded greece
greece 10 milliarde USA 15 billion owe
Posted by: SoporAethernus | January 1, 2012, 5:54 am 5:54 am
Ron Paul would bring something we haven’t had in the white house since 1969, insanity.
Posted by: Jim | January 1, 2012, 6:17 am 6:17 am
A quick glance at Wikipedia’s “Nationwide opinion polling for the Republican Party 2012 presidential primaries” page would show Ron Paul supporters that he isn’t as popular with the country as a whole as they claim. Ron Paul hasn’t had the lead in any nationwide poll since the campaigns started. Or even close to it. At present he’s showing about half the support that the two front runners, Romney and Gingrich, show. Maybe Wikipedia and all the organisations that conduct nationwide polls are part of the New World Order MSM anti Ron Paul conspiracy. Or, then again, maybe not. Maybe he’s just not as popular as his supporters keep claiming.
Posted by: 2hundredthousand | January 1, 2012, 6:22 am 6:22 am
JIM: Lyndon B. Johnson? I thought he was a good POTUS, massively underrated at the time. I think history will see him as a good man who did as well as anyone possibly could have during very difficult times.Give his memoirs,The Vantage Point, a try.
Posted by: 2hundredthousand | January 1, 2012, 6:35 am 6:35 am
ahh romney and what he said they have the same DNA as the european but bedder?? i can remember on a little man who said the arian race is bedder than the jewish
Posted by: SoporAethernus | January 1, 2012, 6:45 am 6:45 am
2hundredthousand: the fact that 9/10 ths of the comments here display an arguement for the bias natured of this media and many other mediums that are we and organized systems of propaganda displays two polar opposites within the world of politics. The media is not suppose to cater to anyone but the truth. Of which is not the case with abc, fox, msnbc, or anything that has a person that reads script or has a talk show for a news show. Read down history pages if you haven’t lived long enough to have seen the most recent of markers being laid in the mirror image of Romes Ceasar. Here they don’t give bread and have gladiators fight it off. instead they have morons jump on t.v. and entertain us with thier pathetic attempts to display talent. and we boo them off and cheer when they give the crowd a show. ie: american idol, dancing with the stars and all that crap. Ron Paul is someone that while I believe his ideas are out of touch for todays evovled society. His policy may actually bring chaos before conflict and success. I believe that the other candidates will not only bring chaos before conflict. But the concept of success will never prevail under them. becuase they have too many legal tools to use against a poplus that is too busy. Such as Roman people were, when ceasar was passing all kinds of laws to allow himself reign. soon the people will awaken to this same discontent and with that will come a full scale retaliation. unlike any before seen in human history. 40,000 laws where passed in 2011. that’s about a single law every 5 minutes. all three branches are out of line. if another out of line president is elected then surely maybe not today. but soon. those laws will be implemented for the control of reign. MSM knows that even their heads are on the line and will surely bring people like you in to discredit the only credible candidate. Sure. Paul is not my most admired of candidates. but between him and others. I’d say he is really the only electable one. based on his record. I look at his record. you may want to do the same. If we want better electable servants. Let us use this tool. Google: The “Origional 13th Amendment” which can be applied to all citizens. Including the so called Knights of the British. whom should be taken care of just as the politicians who go work for international coorporations. ORIGIONAL 13 AMENDMENT LOOK IT UP… BUT DON’T BE SHY OR BASH. SPREAD THE WORD! O and regarding national polling. we don’t have a very intellectual peoples in this nation. not becuase they dont’ have the potential or desire. but their too busy being fooled by smoke and mirrors. I’d say that perhaps the same polling systems are in line with ceasers rome.
Posted by: NONBASHING | January 1, 2012, 6:50 am 6:50 am
NONBASHING: I have to b honest here and admit that I didn’t actually understand much of what you posted above. It was more than a bit confused and bounced around all over the place. hat do the “the so called Knights of the British. whom should be taken care of” have to do with anything? Anyway, you said “MSM knows that even their heads are on the line and will surely bring people like you in to discredit the only credible candidate”; all I did was point out how poorly Ron Paul has done and is doing in ALL the nationwide polls. Lastly, the people questioned in these nationwide polls, people you believe to be less intellectual than yourself for reasons that escape me, are the same people who will vote in November. ALL the nationwide polls make it very clear that not very many of them will be voting Ron Paul.
Posted by: 2hundredthousand | January 1, 2012, 7:23 am 7:23 am
Most of the Republican candidates are Creationists. That alone makes them totally unsuitable to lead a modern technologically advanced democracy, to lead the US in the 21st century. Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and Gary Johnson. All Creationists. Most are also Young Earthers. Only Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman reject Creationism. Newt Gingrich seems to believe in both evolution and Creationism simutaneously, quite a trick. How can anyone who is unable to grasp what is one of the most comprehensively proved theories in all of science or who believes the Earth to be only 6,000 years old possibly be a suitable leader for the US? For the US to have a scientifically illiterate President would be as ridiculous as having one who couldn’t read or write.
Posted by: 2hundredthousand | January 1, 2012, 7:39 am 7:39 am
Don’t forget, 2hundredthousand, we’re talking about AMERICAN christians. They only think about God for 1 hour on sunday morning.
Posted by: King Moses | January 1, 2012, 8:24 am 8:24 am
Noted during this morning’s round table the Iowa caucus impacts the weaker candidates even if front runners either do not win election at the national level — or in Iowa. I remember a poli-sci professor saying many times that, for the most part, one votes not for their choice but for the candidate they do not want in office.
Posted by: SADIE0802 | January 1, 2012, 11:25 am 11:25 am
Mitt Romney is an extrodinary American story. He is the most accurate description of the iconic 1%’r in the race for the Presidency. He represents the kind of progress that got us to where we are today. The kind of thinking thta sent our work and the jobs that went with them to China and India. The kind of improvement that saddled states with health care obligations while stripping them of te appropriate kind of investment in the public infrastructure. They called it budget balancing back then, but today we call it unemployment in the face of crumbing bridges and highways. We can see incredible accomplishment in the history of Mitt Romney. Most of it accrued to his bottomline, which would not be so bad if it had not come at the expense of so many.
Posted by: MLHCo12 | January 1, 2012, 12:04 pm 12:04 pm
Santorum comes from behind to smoke every poll in Iowa!
Posted by: Ward | January 1, 2012, 2:32 pm 2:32 pm
HOW CAN ANYONE TRUST A POLL SPONSORED BY A MEDIA OUTLET THAT HAS ENDORSED ONE CANDIDATE.
RON PAUL WILL BLOW THIS THING OUT
Posted by: david a dudenhoefer | January 1, 2012, 3:25 pm 3:25 pm
I was proud to support Ron Paul in 1988, and I”ll be glad to do so again. I do hope all the Ron Paul supporters understand something – this isn’t about Ron Paul.
It’s about the fact that both Democrats, like Obama signing the recent NDAA bill that granted the military the ability to arrest and indefinitely detain american citizens – and republicans, who spent over a trillion dollars of taxpayer money (borrowed money) – on nation building middle easter countries – both of these parties are big government.
One party criticizes big government when it comes to social issues (Democrats) and another criticizes big government when it comes to fiscal policy (Republicans), but both parties only offer some mild protest, but otherwise are willing to compromise those values at every turn.
It’s not about if Ron Paul can win or not – I know from long experiences that americans don’t care about liberty that much any more, and no, he won’t win.
You fight for liberty because its the right thing to do. When Ron Paul loses – I’ll still be advocating liberty. For as long as it takes, for as long as I can.
I encourage you to do the same.
Posted by: RoboBobo | January 2, 2012, 12:11 am 12:11 am
Let’s hope and see if Iowa and New Hapshire have enough sense to vote for the only viable candidate in this election.
Mitt Romney!
Mitt Romney / Marco Rubio 2012!!!!
Posted by: americanfirst | January 3, 2012, 1:48 pm 1:48 pm
Mitt Romney has a lot of money because people have wilingly donated it this time. He is a coservative and it is obvious that the people that created the “anyone but Romney” mantra is the media. He is and has always been the best prepared to lead our country. Why no mention that he went from 16% to 24%? Why no talk of his momentum and why he is the hot candidate, after only coming in at the end? If all they printed was “Romney will win” then no one would read the articles. They have to try to have anyone compete with him because it makes it better news, like a close sports contest. If they can succeed in helping Romney get defeated, then they will have won for the second time and send a second tier candidate to compete with President Barak Hussein Obama. Mitt Romney is conservative. Look at his record and his platform for the past 5-6 years! He has become more conservative with time, just like Reagan did!
Posted by: Maboje Jokozela | January 3, 2012, 8:17 pm 8:17 pm
Sadly, Ron Paul is a creationist. I’m ashamed to have ever supported him. I will NEVER vote for anyone suffering from the delusion of creationism, young-earth or otherwise.
Posted by: Stephen Crye | January 5, 2012, 12:07 pm 12:07 pm