Mitt Romney Starts to Catch Up With Rick Perry

A national poll released by Bloomberg News, that was conducted by Selzer & Co., on Thursday morning found that Texas Gov. Rick Perry was leading the pack of Republican presidential candidates -- but former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts was right on his heels.

While Perry has been leadingRomney by double digits in most national polls, in the Bloomberg poll the Texans lead was within the margin of error. Perry garnered 26 percent in the poll while Romney took second with 22 percent.

The rest of the field lagged in single digits. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota took third with 9 percent while U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who is still pondering whether to run, tied for fourth with 8 percent. Two favorite sons from Georgia -- businessman Herman Cain and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- tied for sixth with 4 percent. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania took 2 percent followed by former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah with 1 percent.

The poll of 545 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents was taken from Sept. 9-12 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.2 percent.