Mitt Romney landed a much-needed one-two punch Saturday, reasserting himself in the GOP presidential race with a win in the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference and later emerging triumphant in the Maine caucuses.

At CPAC, the former Massachusetts governor nabbed 38 percent of activists’ support to edge out Rick Santorum, who finished second with 31 percent.

In Maine, he won by just three points, 39 percent to Paul’s 36 percent. Santorum trailed in third with 18 percent, and Newt Gingrich received 6 percent of the vote.

Following a Friday speech aimed directly at conservative core principles, Romney said Saturday he was “honored” by the CPAC result.

“I’m heartened that so many friends here agree with me about the need for conservative change,” he tweeted.

In a statement, he said the voters of Maine had “sent a clear message” that they wanted an “outsider” and “conservative” in the White House.

Of 3,804 votes cast in Washington, D.C., at the annual conference of influential conservatives, Newt Gingrich received 15 percent and Ron Paul — the only major GOP presidential contender not to personally appear at CPAC or actively compete in the poll — got 12 percent.

Romney also led a national poll of conservatives released simultaneously with the straw poll results. But the results were narrower, with him beating Santorum, 27 percent to 25 percent, and Newt Gingrich placing third with 20 percent to Paul’s 8 percent. The survey was conducted by Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

The Romney campaign, which has struggled to win over conservatives, worked quietly to assure the poll’s outcome. Earlier Saturday, volunteers in Romney T-shirts prodded supporters to vote before time was up.

Coming off a week in which he re-emerged as a real contender in the race, Santorum’s camp wasn’t as organized, so whatever support he had at the gathering was likely more spontaneous.

The results reflect the state of the volatile primary race at the moment, with Romney and Santorum battling it out for the top spot. But the race has changed course more than once since it began.

His third-place finish is more evidence that Gingrich, the former House speaker, has faded. Gingrich’s speech to the group Friday afternoon underwhelmed, and his weak finish will likely further propel conservative leaders and activists to coalesce behind Santorum, who won a trio of contests on Tuesday in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado.

More than 10,000 activists attended the three-day confab, perhaps the most important conservative gathering on the campaign calendar.

Organizers moved from paper ballots to computerized voting for this year’s straw poll, which allowed them to keep voting open through Saturday.

Paul won last year’s straw poll with 30 percent, while Romney finished second with 23 percent. Gingrich received 5 percent to Santorum’s 2 percent.

Paul did not speak at this year’s CPAC, but instead campaigned in Maine, where he had a real shot at winning the caucuses, but ultimately fell short. His organization did not work aggressively to turn out his supporters at CPAC, and they publicly said they did not care about the outcome.

The straw poll also asked attendees to pick their first choice for vice president. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio topped the list with 34 percent of activists’ support, compared to 15 percent apiece for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

(Source: Politico)