Final Iowa Poll: Romney Leads, Santorum Surges

The final Des Moines Register poll leading up Tuesday’s Iowa Caucuses has it Romney, Paul, Santorum, Gingrich and Perry – but the momentum is with Santorum and to a lesser extent Perry, while Paul and Gingrich seem to be fading:

But the four-day results don’t reflect just how quickly momentum is shifting in a race that has remained highly fluid for months. If the final two days of polling are considered separately, Santorum rises to second place, with 21 percent, pushing Paul to third, at 18 percent. Romney remains the same, at 24 percent.

“Momentum’s name is Rick Santorum,” said the Register’s pollster, J. Ann Selzer.
Another sign of the race’s volatility: 41 percent of likely caucusgoers say they could still be persuaded to change their minds.

Selzer & Co. of Des Moines conducted the poll of 602 likely Republican caucusgoers, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. In the final two days of polling, 302 likely caucusgoers were interviewed, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.6 percentage points.

In 2008, the final DMR poll put Mike Huckabee in the lead, with Mitt Romney in second and John McCain in third, and that’s pretty much how the caucus turned out on the GOP side.

Now that Rick Santorum is surging, he’s also attracting new criticism.