MITT BY 8!

In the closest race in Iowa Caucus history, Mitt Romney was declared the official winner by a margin of only 8 votes over his closest rival — Rick Santorum!

Iowa’s GOP chairman called the race just after 2:30am this morning, with a final tally of 30,015 for Mitt Romney and 30,007 for Rick Santorum, in a contest that went back and forth all evening with multiple lead changes.  But eventually, Romney was declared the winner, while Ron Paul came in 3rd place, Newt Gingrich in 4th, Rick Perry in 5th, Michele Bachmann in 6th and Jon Huntsman in last place.

However, the all important delegate count is much closer. 25 delegates were at stake in last night’s caucus, which was not a “winner-take-all” contest.  CNN estimates that Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul will each end up with 7 delegates, while Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry will collect 2 a piece.  So for Romney, Santorum and Paul, the Iowa Caucus was a virtual tie.

Rick Santorum

Although the Romney campaign gave a positive spin to their narrow win in this first election of the political season, privately their inner circle has reason for genuine concern.  Rick Santorum has consistently been among the bottom 2-3 candidates throughout the entire race.  So his surprise surge in the 11th hour with no local campaign ads, very little campaign cash and a skeleton crew of a staff, while coming within single digits of nearly winning Iowa should put a great amount of fear into Mitt Romney and his chances going forward.

The Iowa Caucus is not usually a strong indicator of who will eventually get the nomination, since Iowans selected Mike Huckabee 4 years ago.  But the strong message from Iowa this time around is that although Mitt Romney may end up as the Republican nominee, it likely won’t be smooth sailing to the GOP convention.  With 70% of Iowans wanting anybody but Mitt, his race for the presidency will almost assuredly be an extreme and extended uphill climb.