Iowa GOP emphasizes Santorum won Iowa
(CNN) - Seeking to put to rest any confusion, the Iowa Republican Party affirmed late Friday night that Rick Santorum took first place in the Iowa caucuses.
The group sent a statement in an effort to "clarify conflicting reports" after the state party released its certified results Thursday showing Santorum had edged rival Mitt Romney by 34 votes.
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Because the results from eight precincts were still missing, some reports in the news media suggested a real winner may never be known.
However, Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matthew Strawn and the State Central Committee officially on Friday called the election for Santorum in a statement, re-emphasizing its announcement from the previous day.
"In order to clarify conflicting reports and to affirm the results released ... by the Republican Party of Iowa, Chairman Matthew Strawn and the State Central Committee declared Senator Rick Santorum the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucus," the statement read.
Original results from the contest on January 3 showed Romney had eked out a victory over Santorum by eight votes. The final results, however, were not certified until this week.
Romney called Santorum on Thursday to congratulate him.
- CNN's Shannon Travis and Ashley Killough contributed to this report.
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Iowa blew it, blew it, blew it. Their credibilty for being the high and might first in the nation caucus is gone since it's clear they DON'T KNOW HOW TO COUNT. I'm no fan of Santorum's, but one can't help wondering how the dynamics of the race would have changed if Santorum had been declared the winner on election night.
Unless that was the plan all along. In which case the GOP establishment blew it, blew it, blew it.
How do you have a "winner" when 8 prescints are missing and the difference between the two top finishers at JUST 34 VOTES?
well how about that.
This comes right on time after negative ads from Romney to Newt and those tax 15% issue. When God opens the door no one can close and when He closes the door no one can open. Go Santorum!
Do we care? Iowa!!!! Really. Neither one of these two won by a large margin. Sick of the news media trying to predict the race...
That's a sad commentary about the people of Iowa.
Who cares? Yesterday's news...the political landscape has already changed.
How can you declare Santorum the official winner when previous reports have stated results from eight precincts were missing and would not be recovered?!?!?!
And the US says that elections in other countries are fraudulant.. 8 missing precints? how do you call a winner? you can not..
His winning shows how far apart the 2 parties are.
So much for voting in the U.S.......
what a joke..... supposedly the most advanced country in the world and all elections seem to have a lot of shadiness like 3rd world country. how can u not have counts right weeks after an election. can these idiots count?