New Hampshire Primary Begins as Romney Leads By Double Digits

By Jon E. Dougherty at 10 Jan 2012

(Newsroom America) -- The race for the Republican presidential nomination continued Tuesday, as voters headed to the polls in New Hampshire, the nation's first primary, to continue the process of winnowing the field of contenders.

Most expected Mitt Romney, who maintained a double-digit lead in polls leading up to the contest, to pull out another victory in the Granite State, though none of his rivals showed any signs of giving up the race.

Heading into Tuesday's contest Romney - a former governor of Massachusetts familiar to many GOP faithful in New Hampshire - held a 13-point lead over Texas congressman Ron Paul, his closest contender, whose campaign said the libertarian-leaning lawmaker will take a strong second-place finish into South Carolina next week.

Paul, however, is planning to skip Florida and will instead focus on picking up caucus delegates in other states where his organizational power is unrivaled except by Romney, Time magazine reported.

Meanwhile Rick Santorum, former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and a champion of social conservatives, said Monday he's hoping to score an upset second-place win, but polls show he'll more than likely finish third behind Paul and Romney.

"I'd be ecstatic with second place," Santorum told reporters outside a diner in Derry, but his demeanor did not display much confidence.

"Governor Romney basically lives here and has spent, as all candidates hve, a lot of money on television. We didn't have it," Santorum continued. "Look, Ron Paul has run here about 17 times. To do as well as him, I'm not sure that's possible, but if we do, it would be a huge win for us."

The rest of the contending field - consisting of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman - were heading to South Carolina, conceding New Hampshire to Romney while pouring most of what their campaigns had left into a needed victory in the Palmetto State.

"We'll win South Carolina," Gingrich told ABC News Monday. "That's my must-win state."

Perry, meanwhile, compared South Carolina to his "Alamo," signifying it likely would be his last shot at gaining any traction in a campaign that has seen him slip from the top of the GOP list to near the bottom.

"We have to finish really well there," he said.

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