Bachmann wins Iowa Republican poll, Perry jumps in

AMES, Iowa, (Reuters) – Michele Bachmann won the  Iowa straw poll today in the first big test of the 2012  Republican presidential race, as Texas Governor Rick Perry  launched a White House bid that could reshape the race.
Bachmann, a U.S. representative from Minnesota, narrowly  edged out Ron Paul and rolled over Tim Pawlenty and the rest of  the field to capture the nonbinding mock election, an early  gauge of strength in the state that holds the first 2012  Republican nominating contest.
“This is the very first step toward taking the White House  in 2012,” Bachmann told a small crowd of supporters outside her  campaign bus on the straw poll grounds. “Now it’s on to all 50  states.”
In South Carolina, Perry formally jumped into the race with  a blistering attack on President Barack Obama.
“We cannot afford four more years of this rudderless  leadership,” Perry told a conference of conservatives,  promising to reduce taxes, regulations and government intrusion  in people’s lives.
The straw poll and Perry’s campaign launch, coming less  than six months before Iowa’s nominating contest, promised to  reshuffle the Republican field fighting for the nomination to  challenge Obama, a Democrat, in 2012.
Perry, a staunch social conservative with a strong job  creation record in Texas, is expected to immediately vault into  the top tier of contenders along with front-runner Mitt Romney.  Perry visits Iowa on Sunday.
In the straw poll, Bachmann won 4,823 votes to 4,671 for  Paul, a U.S. representative from Texas. Pawlenty, a former  Minnesota governor who needed a strong showing to rescue his  struggling campaign, finished a distant third in a bruising  setback.
Bachmann’s win keeps her recent momentum alive and will  cement her standing in the top tier of contenders. She had shot  to the top of opinion polls in Iowa this summer with the  support of social conservatives and the fiscal conservative Tea  Party movement.