Romney and Gingrich are neck-and-neck in Florida, says poll

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are in a statistical dead heat, according to a Time-CNN poll released on Wednesday.

Romney leads Gingrich 36 percent to 34 percent in the poll, which has a five-point margin of error.

{mosads}Romney held a 25-point lead in the same poll just over one week ago.

Rounding out the field are Rick Santorum at 11 percent and Ron Paul at 9 percent.

On Wednesday, Santorum indicated that he could leave Florida before next Tuesday’s primary. The Paul campaign is not expected to focus on Florida, where the winner will take all of the delegates; instead he is electing to focus on caucus-style states where delegates are awarded proportionately.

A Quinnipiac University poll released earlier on Wednesday also showed Romney leading Gingrich 36 percent to 34 percent.

The Time/CNN poll was conducted between Jan. 22 and Jan. 24, so all of those surveyed knew about Gingrich’s convincing South Carolina primary victory.

However, only a portion of the survey took into account Monday evening’s debate in Florida, where Romney went after Gingrich hard, calling him an “influence-peddler” for his ties to mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Gingrich’s rise has largely been attributed to his strong debate performances, and with the audience instructed to hold their applause, his attacks seemed to fall flat.

The poll shows Romney picking up steam in the final two days of polling.

Gingrich led Romney 38 percent to 32 percent after Sunday’s polling, while Romney led Gingrich 38 percent to 29 percent in Monday and Tuesday’s polling.

Because Florida is an early-voting state, Gingrich faces another potential hurdle. Nearly a quarter of a million ballots have already been cast in the Sunshine State — many of them while Romney was ahead in the polls by double digits.