Huntsman the spoiler in Iowa?

Published January 3, 2012 5:00am ET



JOHNSTON, Iowa — GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman didn’t campaign in the Hawkeye state, but he may have swung the ultimate outcome.

Right now, Huntsman has only received 700 votes, or about 1 percent of all votes cast. In a normal race, this would be nothing more than a blip. But this isn’t a normal race.

With 96 percent of the vote in, Rick Santorum is leading Mitt Romney by a razor thin margin of 79 votes.

Entrance poll data suggested that Huntsman’s support came exclusively from “moderate or liberal” voters, a subset which made up just 17 percent of the electorate, but which Romney carried over Santorum 35 percent to 8 percent.

If the final numbers are similar to these, Santorum might want to send Huntsman a belated Christmas present.