Detroit News: Santorum 34%, Romney 30% en Michigan

Detroit News:

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has a slim lead over Mitt Romney, an indication the Michigan native son has yet to convince state voters he should be the Republican nominee for president, a Detroit News poll shows.

Santorum leads Romney 34 percent to 30.4 percent among likely Republican primary voters, but the gap is within the margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had support from 11.6 percent of respondents, former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul had 8.9 percent and 12.4 percent was undecided.

Despite Romney's win here in 2008 and the built-in advantages of name recognition and familiarity, party regulars appear to have doubts about his conservative credentials and the worth of his Michigan ties. It may cost him the dominant primary victory many expected.

(...) The primary may come down to which electorate shows up: Will the heavily Santorum-leaning social conservatives get out in droves or will moderates, who favor Romney, comprise the majority? That could decide the state, said pollster Richard Czuba, whose firm, Glengariff Group Inc., conducted the poll.

"It all depends on who votes," he said.