Paul, Santorum and Romney in Three-Way Race in Iowa - East Idaho News
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Paul, Santorum and Romney in Three-Way Race in Iowa

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010312 IowaFrontrunners8PMET?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1325640597203ABC News(DES MOINES, Iowa) — As the Iowa caucuses began, estimates from early entrance poll results showed a three-way race between Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

Romney made a last-minute push to lure undecided voters, logging more miles in Iowa in the last seven days than in the entire primary season.

Romney had been leading in the polls, but as recently as Saturday a Des Moines Register poll concluded that nearly four out of 10 Iowa Republican voters were undecided, driving the candidates to campaign late into the evening Tuesday.

Romney Tuesday focused his campaign on attacking President Obama.

“This has been a failed presidency,” Romney said at an event in Des Moines. “I will go to work to get Americans back to work.”

At the Romney campaign headquarters in Iowa, volunteers armed with scripts made phone call after phone call urging supporters and undecided Republicans to head to the caucuses and deliver a victory for him.

Santorum, who some have dubbed an honorary Iowan because of his strong presence in the state, also campaigned aggressively Tuesday. The former Pennsylvania congressman surged in the Iowa polls just days before the election, and is expected to attract a sizeable chunk of the influential evangelical vote in Iowa.

“This is the first step, this is the first step,” Santorum told ABC News after his last Iowa campaign stop in Urbandale. “A win here is a start, but it’s a start. It’s not the culmination, it’s a start. It’s not the culmination, it’s the beginning.”

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