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Republican presidential candidates are spending the first day of 2012 campaigning hard for support, two days before the first big test in this year's presidential election.
In one of the most volatile campaigns in decades, new opinion polls show rapidly shifting support for the Republican candidates competing in Iowa's presidential caucus on Tuesday. One new poll shows that 41 percent of expected voters at the Iowa caucus may still change their minds – making the race harder to predict.
Iowa is a midwestern farm state with a population of just 3 million – less than one percent of the U.S. But the state's presidential caucus, as the first event on the campaign calendar, is a key test for presidential candidates.
Jim Pellett in the town of Atlantic, Iowa, supports former congressman Newt Gingrich.
“It makes us feel very good because it gives us a chance to really participate in choosing the next president of the United States. And it is important for us to get to know them, it is important for us to be able to express our views to them and to help us understand politics and them in general.”
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has consistently ranked near, or at, the top of the opinion polls over the past year. A poll by the prominent Iowa newspaper, the Des Moines Register, Saturday gave Romney 24 percent support, compared with 22 percent for Paul, known for his libertarian views.
After months of languishing near the bottom of the polls, social conservative Rick Santorum surged into third place with 15 percent, and the survey shows the former senator's support rising rapidly.
“We still have a ways to go, but we are the one on the move, nobody else is, and that's pretty exciting.”
The Register's poll places former congressman Newt Gingrich at fourth with 12 percent, and Texas Governor Rick Perry is in fifth place with 11 percent. Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who won an informal vote of support in Iowa in August, sagged to 7 percent.
While the winner of the Iowa caucus may not go on to win a party nomination, or the presidency, a poor showing in the midwestern state may force some candidates to drop out of the race.
The caucus – in which Republicans gather in precinct meetings to pick their favorite – is followed quickly by primary elections in several other states where candidates will battle to become their party's nominee for the presidential election in November. President Barack Obama is running unopposed for the Democratic party's nomination, so the focus at this stage is on the Republican candidates.
Jon Huntsman, who was President Obama's ambassador to China, has concentrated his campaign on New Hampshire. That northeastern state holds its primary January 10.
