Mitt Romney is at the top of the Des Moines Register's latest Iowa poll, although Rick Santorum made a surprise jump into third place, pushing out Newt Gingrich.
Sen. Ron Paul of Texas came in second among the contenders for Republican presidential nomination.
The results of the poll of likely Republican caucus-goers were announced Saturday, just days away from Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, which kick off the Republican primary season.
In four days of polling, from Dec. 27-30, former Massachusetts Gov. Romney came away with 24%, while Paul had 22% and former Sen. Santorum (R., Penn.) had 15%, according to a Des Moines Register report on the poll.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich had 12%, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry had 11% and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) had 7%, the report said.But a look at the last two days of polling shows how quickly Santorum is gaining in popularity. If only those days are used, Santorum edges out Paul for second place, the Des Moines Register said.
And in the final day of polling, Santorum had 22% support, just one point away from Romney 23% on that day, the newspaper added.
The poll was conducted by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines and was based on telephone interviews with people likely to attend the Republican caucuses, the Register reported.
The margin of error for the full four days is plus or minus 4 percentage points, the newspaper said. For the last two days, it's plus or minus 5.6 percentage points, it added.
