AUGUSTA, Maine, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney pulled out a win in Maine's weeklong caucuses, results announced Saturday showed.
The former Massachusetts governor, who also bolstered his candidacy with a victory in the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, received 39 percent of the Maine caucus-goers' support to 36 percent for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who had invested a good deal of effort in the state and whose staff had forecast a win.
Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, was third with 18 percent and Newt Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker from Georgia, was fourth with 6 percent.
Romney said in a statement the voters of Maine had "sent a clear message" that they wanted an "outsider" and "conservative" in the White House, Politico reported.
All in all, it was a strong finish to the week for Romney, who had lost Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri (though in a non-binding vote in the Show-Me State) to Santorum.
