Gingrich Wins SC GOP Primary; Romney Second

As late as Tuesday, Romney had a double-digit lead in most polls of likely voters in the state's primary, but Gingrich turned in the two strong debate performances in the state this week while Romney was put on his heels by his rivals.

Then what had been declared an eight-vote Romney victory in Iowa's January 3 caucuses was reversed into a 34-vote win for Santorum when the state party certified its results on Thursday.

Later that day, Texas Gov. Rick Perry suspended his campaign and threw his support to Gingrich.

"It has been a hard week," state treasurer Curtis Loftis, a leading Romney surrogate, said Friday. "Nobody is going to deny that."

Gingrich had been building up momentum all week. A poll released Saturday morning showed the former House speaker's surge over the last week carrying him past Romney, who had been the front-runner in the state all month. The American Research Group poll shows Gingrich leading Romney by a 40% to 26% margin. ARG's last poll, released Thursday, showed a virtual tie with Gingrich at 33% and Romney at 32%.

Gingrich and Romney both campaigned in the conservative Upstate on Saturday with Gingrich presenting himself as the conservative alternative to the "Massachusetts moderate" Romney while Romney continued to attack Gingrich as he has over the past week as polls tightened.

At his Greenville campaign headquarters, Romney launched a new line of attack, calling for Gingrich to release details on his work for government-backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac, an institution unpopular with conservatives.

"Didn't he say he was going to release information about his relationship there?" Romney asked. "Let's see what report he wrote for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, what his conclusions were and what the contract looked like. I thought he said he was going to do that."

Romney's campaign also has been pressing the former House speaker to release the full report from a 1990s ethics investigation that led to his downfall in Congress. Gingrich was reprimanded by the House and ordered to pay a $300,000 penalty in 1997 for violating an ethics rule.

This week, Romney's campaign sent Gingrich a cake marking the 15th anniversary of that reprimand, according to a Romney campaign source. A picture provided by that source shows the wording "Happy 15th anniversary, Mr. Speaker! ... Now release the records," written in icing on the cake.

An anticipated run-in between the two front-runners didn't materialize at a Greenville restaurant where both had booked events at the same time. Romney showed up about 45 minutes early and had left before Gingrich arrived.

Upon arriving, Gingrich asked, "Where's Mitt? I thought he was going to stay and maybe we'd have a little debate this morning."