While Ohio received more focus from Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum than the other nine contests up for grabs on Super Tuesday, a poll released Monday finds that Tennessee -- and its 58 delegates -- appears to be a close contest.
A poll from We Ask America released on Monday finds a three-way battle to win the Volunteer State's primary on Tuesday.
Three polls released on Sunday found Santorum with a close lead over Romney there, and polls released earlier in the month showed the former senator form Pennsylvania with a double-digit lead in the Volunteer State.
But the We Ask America poll finds another contender has worked his way back into the picture in Tennessee -- Newt Gingrich.
The poll of likely primary voters finds Romney with 30 percent and Santorum and Gingrich right on his heels with 29 percent each. Ron Paul lags with 12 percent. The poll of 1,023 likely Tennessee Republican primary voters was taken March 4 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.06 percent.
Gingrich has been active in Tennessee in recent days. Last week, he held events across the state with one of Tennessees favorite sons -- former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Over the past weekend, the Gingrich campaign had businessman Herman Cain, who pulled out of the race for the Republican nomination and endorsed Gingrich, and former U.S. Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire hit the trail in the state.
After attending a rally with Cain and former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts in Tulsa, Okla., Gingrich turned back to Tennessee, with events in Kingsport and outside of Knoxville. Cain was scheduled to join Gingrich for a rally in Chattanooga on Monday night.
The Romney and Santorum camps are also looking to turn out their supporters in Tennessee, even as the two continue to focus their efforts on winning Ohio.
On Friday, Romney unveiled the support of U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, a freshman who crushed Democrat incumbent Lincoln Davis during the 2010 election cycle. Santorum, who was also in Tennessee last week, announced on Sunday night that he had won the endorsements ofa dozen state legislators.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
