Romney ends losing streak in Maine

Mitt Romney has eked out a narrow win in Maine's Republican caucuses, providing his campaign for the party's presidential nomination a much-needed boost after three straight losses earlier this week.

But the former Massachusetts governor's margin of victory over Texas congressman Ron Paul on Saturday was so slim it all but guaranteed scrutiny of the party's decision not to count the results of caucuses scheduled later in February.

The Maine victory comes at a critical time in Romney's quest to become the Republican nominee who will take on President Barack Obama in the November election.

Romney is working to gain trust from the party's conservatives, who view him sceptically because of his past shifts on a variety of issues, including his previous support for abortion rights.

Conservatives generally view Romney's chief rivals, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, as having views more in line with theirs.

Romney's victory in Maine came just hours after he won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference in Washington. He was supported as the Republican presidential nominee by 38 per cent of the 3,408 respondents, edging out Santorum with 31 per cent. Gingrich was backed by 15 per cent and Paul had 12 per cent.

These results helped slow a skid that began earlier this week when Santorum, who has strong support from social conservatives, won contests in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado. Romney had all but ignored Santorum before these contests.

At the Washington conference of conservative activists, Romney delivered a high-profile address on Friday in which he described himself as "a severely conservative Republican governor".

In Maine, at a state party gathering in Portland, state Republican chairman Charlie Webster said any caucus results that came in after Saturday would not be counted no matter how close the vote turned out to be.

"Some caucuses decided not to participate in this poll and will caucus after this announcement," Webster said. "Their results will not be factored in. The absent votes will not be factored into this announcement after the fact."

Maine's caucuses began on February 4 and continued throughout the week. But the results announced on Saturday accounted for just 83 per cent of all precincts in the state. Several communities elected to hold their caucuses at a later date.

Caucuses in Washington County, scheduled for Saturday, were postponed until February 18 because of a major snowstorm. In a televised interview, Webster said there were less than 200 votes in Washington County and he doubted that including them would have changed the outcome.

Speaking to supporters in Portland, Paul expressed disappointment that only a portion of the state's caucuses had counted toward the total.

"I wish all the caucuses had met today," Paul said, adding, "It's almost like we could call it a tie."

Romney was attending a fundraiser in California late on Saturday, after campaigning in Maine earlier in the day.

Romney won 50.1 per cent of the vote in the Nevada caucuses, but failed to win a majority of Republican votes in his other victories in New Hampshire and Florida. He's looking to emerge strongly from the March 6 battle known as Super Tuesday, when 10 states hold nominating contests.

Romney's conservative opposition remains divided - Gingrich has won one state and Santorum four. But Santorum is suddenly threatening Romney's dominance in states where his team had previously felt comfortable.

Romney's team is preparing an aggressive push against Santorum in Michigan, the state where the former governor was born and where Romney is a household name - and where his advisers had hoped for an easy victory.

With his victory in Maine, Romney added to his lead in the race for delegates to the Republican national convention in Tampa, Florida, in late August. Romney won 11 delegates and Paul won 10, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. Santorum and Gingrich were shut out.

Maine's local caucuses were the first step of a multi-step process to determine the state's delegates to the national convention. Romney would win the most delegates, if the candidates maintained the same level of support throughout the process.

Romney leads the overall race for delegates with 123. Santorum has 72, Gingrich has 32 and Paul has 19. It takes 1,144 delegates to win the nomination.