Mitt Romney is virtually deadlocked with Ron Paul heading into Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses, while Rick Santorum continues to surge, a new poll found.
Romney is the choice of 23 percent of likely Republican caucus voters, ahead of Paul’s 21 percent and Santorum’s 15 percent, the NBC-Marist survey found.
But the poll showed that Iowans are still unsure, with 13 percent saying they may change their minds in the next three days.
Romney and Paul moved up slightly since they were tied, with 19 percent apiece, in an NBC-Marist poll last month, while Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, has soared from 6 percent.
The big loser in the past four weeks was Newt Gingrich, who plummeted from 28 percent to 13 percent.
The survey, conducted Tuesday and Wednesday, also found an increase in negative feelings among Iowa Republicans.
Forty-one percent said Paul would be “unacceptable” as the GOP presidential nominee, up from 26 percent last month. And Gingrich’s “unacceptable” rating also jumped, from 16 percent to 35 percent.
Santorum described himself yesterday as the “steady Eddie” at the school dance who deserves a second look after the girls tried out the good dancers with “flashier hair.”