Mitt Romney wins Maine caucuses straw poll

Mitt Romney eked out a narrow win in Maine’s Republican caucuses, state party officials announced Saturday, providing his campaign with a much-needed boost after 3 losses earlier last week.

Mitt Romney

The Republican party of Maine declared Romney the winner of a presidential survey of voters attending the state’s local caucuses. And Mitt Romney also came out on top in a poll of activists attending the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Mitt Romney will not be awarded delegates from the wins, though the Maine results could be mirrored at a state convention in May where the state’s 24 delegates will be awarded.

Still, taken together, the dual wins are likely to give a boost to Mitt Romney, who had faced tough questions in the last week about whether his campaign can excite the conservative base of the Republican party.

In Maine, Mitt Romney won 39% of the poll votes; Texas Rep. Ron Paul took 36% of the vote, while former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum captured 18%. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich won 6%.

In a statement, Romney said the voters of Maine “sent a clear message that it is past time to send an outsider to the White House, a conservative with a lifetime of experience in the private sector, who can uproot Washington’s culture of taxing and spending and borrowing and endless bureaucracy.”

The tiny Maine race — fewer than 5,600 votes were cast — had taken on increased importance in recent days as Mitt Romney had faced new worries about his ability to unite the Republican party after losing to Santorum in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday.

Maine was Romney’s only chance to reset the race’s narrative for more than 2 weeks and a loss in the Northeastern state would have been another setback for his campaign.

Republicans will not vote again until the critically important primaries in Arizona and Michigan on February 28, followed by Super Tuesday on March 6, when 10 states will hold elections.