CNN Poll: Santorum Support Triples in Month

Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s support for the Republican nomination for president has more than tripled, rising from 5 percent to 16 percent since the beginning of December, according to a CNN/Time/ORC International Poll.

However, if Iowa’s GOP caucuses took place today, 25 percent of those likely to attend the voting said they most likely would back former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, while 22 percent said they would support Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Romney's 3-point margin is within the poll's 4.5-percentage-point sampling error.

Meanwhile, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s support has plunged from 33 percent to 14 percent. The poll found that Texas Gov. Rick Perry snagged 11 percent; Minnesota Rep Michele Bachmann, 9 percent; and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, 1 percent.

A CNN/Time/ORC poll of likely primary voters in New Hampshire shows former Massachusetts Gov. Romney remains the front-runner, with 44 percent of likely GOP primary voters, up nine points from earlier this month. Paul is at 17 percent; Gingrich, 16 percent; Huntsman, 9 percent; Santorum, 4 percent; Bachmann, 3 percent; and Perry, 2 percent.

ORC International conducted the CNN/Time poll from Dec. 21-24 and Dec. 26-27, with 452 voters likely to participate in the Iowa Republican caucuses and 543 who are likely to vote in the New Hampshire Republican primary questioned by telephone. The New Hampshire survey's sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points. The Iowa poll's sampling error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.