Romney Hits High Note in Iowa Straw Poll

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• MARGARET WARNER:

  Mitt Romney's first-place finish in Saturday's Republican straw poll in Iowa was hardly a surprise. The millionaire businessman and former Massachusetts governor vastly outspent the rest of the field, devoting an estimated $2 million to $3 million to coming in first.

  What's more, his three most formidable rivals — former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Senator John McCain, and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, who hasn't officially entered the race — all skipped the poll.

  No delegates were at stake in the beauty contest, staged by the Iowa Republican Party to raise money and rally the party faithful ahead of the 2008 caucuses. The party charged attendees $35 and the candidates' thousands of dollars for prime tent and display space.

  Romney's campaign bused in thousands of voters to Ames, paid for their tickets, and fed them free barbecue in his air-conditioned tent. By day's end, he'd won nearly 32 percent of the 14,000 votes cast.

  Second and third place went to two candidates who'd tried to portray themselves, not Romney, as the true social conservatives in the race. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee placed second with 18 percent, despite spending only $150,000.

  FORMER GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE (R), Arkansas: When you look at what we were able to achieve, it was because people came to Ames to vote for us.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  In third place, with 15 percent, was Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, who spent a little over $300,000 and relentlessly hammered Romney as out of touch with Iowa's conservatives.

  SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), Kansas: Mitt Romney has supported taxpayer funding of abortion. Mitt Romney recently, as recent as 2005, said he continued to take and was in a pro-choice position.