By Rick Santorum unexpected Mitt Romney managed to thwart attempts to dominate the Iowa caucuses, which started the process of selecting the Republican presidential candidate, Tuesday (01/03/2012).

Huffington Post reported, based on reports from the 99.5 percent of polling stations, they both get 24.6 percent of the vote. Differences are both just eight votes. Romney getting 30 015 votes, while Santorum 30,007 votes.

The third place was occupied by members of Congress from Texas, Ron Paul, who get 21 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, former chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich won only 13 percent of the vote, Governor of Texas Rick Perry 10 percent, members of the House of Representatives Michelle Bachmann 5 percent, and former Utah governor John Huntsman got 1 percent of the vote.

With reserve funds that are still abundant and robust infrastructure that Romney's campaign has a better chance than his rivals, though he continues to face the distrust of conservatives.

Opinion polls show Romney is far ahead of its competitors. Seen as a favorite among Republican businessman, Romney predicted would excel in the primary (voting) in New Hampshire next week. He also judged to have strong resources to fight in states like Florida that great at the end of this month.

Meanwhile, Santorum made a surprise jump in as one of the favorite candidate of the conservatives even though during this time he was back order stock at the Republican nomination.

Keunggulanya in Iowa is apparently not separated from his diligence campaigned in 99 areas in Iowa which is one of a large base of Christian conservatives. In addition to affirm its opposition to same-sex marriage, Santorum "sell" the seventh son of his family life education received home schooling.

"The fight continues," said former Pennsylvania senator told supporters after his lead in Iowa began to appear. Santorum appeared confident despite giving minimal and does not have a strong infrastructure for campaigning.