Rick Santorum Now Leads Mitt Romney in Ohio

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday finds Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has moved ahead of Mitt Romney in the pivotal state of Ohio, which holds its primary on March 6.

The poll of likely primary voters has Santorum on top in the Buckeye State with 36 percent, followed by Romney with 29 percent and Newt Gingrich in third with 20 percent. Ron Paul lags in the single digits, taking 9 percent in the poll. However, Ohio Republicans remain up for grabs -- with 50 percent of those surveyed open to changing their minds before the primary.

"Senator Rick Santorum has zoomed to the front of the line among likely voters in Ohio's March 6 Republican presidential primary," said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute on Wednesday. "He appears to be riding the momentum from his victories last week in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri.

"Unclear is whether that momentum fizzles, as happened to Santorum in New Hampshire after winning Iowa, and as happened to Governor Mitt Romney in South Carolina after winning New Hampshire and Speaker Newt Gingrich in Florida after taking South Carolina," Brown noted.

The poll of 553 likely Ohio Republican primary voters was taken Feb. 7-12 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.2 percent.