MANCHESTER, NH — The virtual tie between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum in the Iowa caucuses appears to have catapulted both men to the top of the polls in South Carolina, whose January 21 primary is shaping up as a key contest in the Republican presidential race.
A poll released Friday morning by Scott Rasmussen shows Romney in the lead in South Carolina, with 27 percent, and Santorum a close second with 24 percent.
Newt Gingrich, who had built a strong lead in South Carolina polling in December, is in third place in the Rasmussen survey, with 18 percent. Ron Paul is at 11 percent, Rick Perry is at five percent, and Jon Huntsman is at two percent.
“The latest findings from South Carolina parallel the voting sentiments of Republicans nationally following the Iowa caucuses,” Rasmussen writes. “The January 21 primary in South Carolina is especially critical for Santorum who has largely written off next Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary and is counting on the conservative, evangelical vote in the southern state to build the momentum for his candidacy.”
Rasmussen found that Santorum is the best-liked candidate, but Romney is the candidate most state Republicans believe will win the nomination. “Sixty-six percent of all likely Republican primary voters in South Carolina, regardless of whom they want to win, think Romney will ultimately win the party’s presidential nomination,” Rasmussen writes. “Just 11% predict that Santorum will be the GOP nominee, while nine percent expect Gingrich to triumph.”
Here in New Hampshire, Romney maintains a big lead, with 40 percent in the latest Suffolk University poll. The only question among political insiders at the moment is how big Romney’s victory will be. In a Friday morning interview, former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, a Romney supporter, said a Romney total above 35 percent of the vote would be seen as a strong win, while a total below 35 percent would be seen as less impressive.
