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SALT LAKE CITY -- Congressman Jason Chaffetz will ring in the New Year in Iowa as he throws his support behind GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.
As part of a last minute push for votes, Rep. Chaffetz, R-Utah, is joining team Romney in Iowa.
Chaffetz will spend Monday and Tuesday with the campaign bus telling voters about Romney's personal and professional qualifications. He will highlight the Salt Lake winter Olympic games and Romney's strong family values.
Related:
Romney tries to come across as a man of the people
Dressed in jeans, shirt sleeves rolled up, Mitt Romney reminisced before a noontime crowd about the long car trips his family took when he was a boy. "My dad made Ramblers, so we had one," the Republican presidential hopeful said.The main thrust of Chaffetz' message will be that unlike his opponents, Romney is not a Washington insider and can fix the nation's economic problems.
Iowa's lead off caucuses are Tuesday. After those wrap up, Chaffetz will join the Romney camp in New Hampshire to help hold onto and possibly increase Romney's lead in the polls in that state.
Five days out, public and private polling show Romney and Ron Paul in strong contention to win the caucuses, with coalitions of support cobbled together from across the Republican political spectrum and their get-out-the-vote operations at the ready. They're the only two with the money and the organizations necessary to ensure big turnouts on Tuesday.
The three others -- Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich -- will have to rely largely on momentum to carry supporters to precinct caucuses.
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Written with contributions from Logan Daniels and The Associated Press.
