Mitt Romney Wins Maine Caucuses and CPAC Straw Poll, Avoiding Embarrassing Defeats

UPDATE: Mitt Romney emerged as the winner of Maine's nonbinding caucuses, with 39 percent of the vote, getting a much-needed victory in a friendly state after disappointing national poll results. However, Romney eked out his victory with a margin of just 194 votes. It should be noted, though, that the pool of voters was relatively small: There were only 3,408 CPAC voters, and 5,524 Maine caucus voters. Ron Paul came in second with 36 percent in this libertarian-leaning state, followed by Rick Santorum with 18 percent and Newt Gingrich with 6 percent of the caucuses' vote. Normally, Maine's caucuses -- which did not attract substantially more voters than CPAC's straw poll -- wouldn't attract much attention, but the faltering of Romney's campaign in recent days and the rise of Rick Santorum's gave added importance to the state's results.

Final results from CPAC's much-watched Fabrizio McLaughlin annual straw poll are in. Mitt Romney came in first, followed by Rick Santorum:

Mitt Romney: 38 percent

Rick Santorum: 31 percent

Newt Gingrich: 15 percent

Ron Paul: 12 percent

Paul won last year's CPAC straw poll for the second year in a row with 30 percent of the vote, trailed by Romney with 23 percent. Santorum has been doing very well in national polls lately, with 38 percent of likely Republican voters choosing Santorum, to Romney's 23 percent.