Romney gets new impetus in Maine

Portland, Maine:  Mitt Romney eked out a narrow win in Maine's Republican caucuses, state party officials announced, providing his campaign for the party's presidential nomination a much-needed boost after three straight losses earlier this week.

But the former Massachusetts governor's margin of victory over Texas Republican Ron Paul on Saturday was so slim it all but guaranteed scrutiny of the party's decision not to count the results of caucuses scheduled later in February.

The Maine victory comes at a critical time in Romney's quest to become the Republican nominee who will take on President Barack Obama in the November election.

Wooing conservatives

Romney is working to gain trust from the conservative activists who make up the Republican base. They view him sceptically because of his shifts on a variety of issues, including his previous support for abortion rights.

Conservatives view Romney's chief rivals — former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives — as having views more in line with them.

Romney's victory in Maine came just hours after he won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference in Washington. He was supported as the Republican presidential nominee by 38 per cent of the 3,408 respondents, edging out Santorum with 31 per cent. Gingrich was backed by 15 per cent, and Paul had 12 per cent.

These results helped slow a skid that began last week when Santorum, who has strong support from social conservatives, won contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado. Romney had all but ignored Santorum before these contests.

At the Washington conference of conservative activists, Romney delivered a high-profile address on Friday in which he described himself as "a severely conservative Republican governor".

In Maine, at a state party gathering in Portland, state Republican Chairman Charlie Webster announced Romney had won with 2,190 votes, or 39 per cent, compared to 1,996, or 36 per cent, for Paul, the only other candidate to aggressively compete in the state. Santorum received 989 votes, or 18 per cent and Gingrich won 349, or 6 per cent, but neither actively campaigned there.

Leaving out caucuses

Webster said any caucus results that come in after Saturday wouldn't be counted no matter how close the vote turned out to be.

"Some caucuses decided not to participate in this poll and will caucus after this announcement," Webster said. "Their results will not be factored in."

Maine's caucuses began on February 4 and continued throughout the week. But the results announced on Saturday accounted for just 83 per cent of all precincts in the state. Several communities elected to hold their caucuses at a later date.

Caucuses in Washington County scheduled for Saturday were postponed until February 18 because of a major snowstorm that blanketed the region. In a televised interview, Webster said there were less than 200 votes in Washington County and he doubted that including them would have changed the outcome.