>> shannon travis, thanks so much inch much more after the break. a question for you, gary johnson, does the name ring a bell? well, up until last week he was running for the republican nomination, now he's running for the libertarian nomination. i'll tell you why. [ woman ] ♪ what i want this season ♪ if you'd like to try and guess ♪ ♪ it is something very special ♪ i would readily confess [ dogs barking ] ♪ 'cause all i want this season ♪ ♪ is something from your heart ♪ la da da, la da da [ male announcer ] thinking of others this holiday season, travelers. >>> welcome back to "the contenders 2012." we should call this segment the former contenders. gary johnson is the former governor from new mexico, a two-term, elected twice, they loved him there, and he recently decided to run for the republican nomination. he felt the republican party let him down, that networks and others who sponsored debates unfairly left him out of those debates. so last week he announced that he was now going to try for the nomination of the libertarian party, because fi

shannon travis is in des moines for us. shannon, walk us through what apparently happened. some are missing, some just aren't right. what's the deal? >> reporter: well, here's basically what happened. you know that on caucus night, kyra, they put out the unofficial numbers, right? it's a certification process that has to go through the 99 counties in iowa. they're different precincts, over 1770 precincts. all of them have to turn in what's called a form e. it's basically saying, you know what, these are the numbers that we received on caucus night for each one of the candidates. the problem is according to the "des moines register," none of the certification form existed. it leaves a big asterisk over who won. santorum and the successive counting in terms of counting the vote went up by 34 votes. you know on caucus night mitt romney won by 8 by the unofficial count. again, it's these eight precincts that have these missing form e's that leave this huge question mark over who actually won here. i'm standing outside the iowa republican headquarters where in a few moments i'll

joining us live now from tampa, cnn political reporter shannon travis. y. still, how is that race shaping up? >> excellent question, fred. let me start off by telling you this is the first time in three months i haven't had to wear a coat coming from iowa and new hampshire. that being said, to answer your question, the way that the race stands right now is how it kind of stood in south carolina going in. we had a recent cnn/orc poll that shows mitt romney ahead of newt gingrich by about 24 points. let's look at the numbers. mitt romney, 43. rick santorum, 19%. gingrich, 18%. ron paul, 9%. i meant mitt romney is ahead of rick santorum 24 points. also the name of the the game here, we had three contests, iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, the name of the game as you know, fred, is racking up delegates. in terms of the delegate counts, you need them to win the nomination, we show by these numbers, this is still a long race. romney 31. newt gingrich, 26 delegates. ron paul, 10 delegates and rick santorum, 8 delegates. this race is far from over. people said

cnn's political reporter shannon travis joins us from tampa. shannon -- you've seen the ads? are they just bombarded, this guy is terrible, do not vote for him. >> reporter: don, you can't even turn on the tv down here and not see the ads. we know that mitt romney has been pretty much outspending newt gingrich in terms of the ads. the romney campaign and the pro-romney super pac. he's been outspending newt gingrich. the ads are coming fast and furious and they are pretty brutal already. not to mention just the ads, but the actual campaign events, i think we have some pictures that we're waiting for newt gingrich to come out. he's got an evening event and mitt romney's started with his. let's take a quick update of where this thing stands right now in terms of poll 234u78 pers. that's kind of the most accurate gauge of what's going on. an nbc news poll from earlier today, and take a listen at this. mitt romney, 42%, don. newt gingrich, 27%, rick santorum, 16% and ron paul, 11%. there were two other patrols, one from arg and another one from -- the tampa bay newspaper down here

shannon travis is live from myrtle beach, where tee party groups are holding a convention and, shannon, i understand there have been some pretty tense moments there. tell us more. >> yeah, there were some tense moments here at the spring may resort where they're holding their first ever tea party convention here in south carolina, fred. for the most part the purpose of the event was for tea party activists to kind of network, get to know each other, hear from political heavyweights, senator jim demint spoke to the crowd. not too long into this convention, to the start of the convention, things turned a little ugly against mitt romney. you had a few tea party activists get up and say by no uncertain terms that mitt romney should not be the candidate who gets the nomination. take a listen at what -- what one man said, a prom needn't tea party activist. take a listen to this. >> there is a candidate that can beat obama in a debate and what is his name? it is newt gingrich. romney is going to lose to owe boum obama. no doubt about that in my mind. that's my view. >> this guy is a newt ging

shannon travis is standing by in cedar falls at a site where some 6,000 people are going to be caucusing tonight. michele bachmann is already there. we're going to be addressing the crowds. shannon, what is the scene there? having a problem get together shannon. we'll check in with him a little later. over the past six months it seemed there was a new republican front-runner every few weeks or so. let's take a look at the trend lines in this volatile race. we'll start with the national polling beginning in june. back then mitt romney was the leader, then rick perry, then herman cain. then newt gingrich soared. by december, mitt romney was back where he started at the top of the pack. even more ups and downs in tie wa polls. first romney, then bachmann, then herman cain, then romney again, then newt gingrich, then ron paul. now mitt romney heading into the caucuses. a lot to talk about with all of our contributors. ari fleischer, what are you looking for? >> one, how energized are the republicans and, of course, who won? that's really key. the other is who is going to be the first ones to

official, our political reporter shannon travis shows us democracy in action at manchester as he followed from the voting booth to its final resting place. >> we may be hearing candidates speeches and results, but this process is far from over. we're following along with the ballots as they're leaving ward 1 here at the webster elementary school in manchester. we're going to follow along and show you where they're going for the final resting spot. this coverage is special because this basically shows you how democracy works, how the ballot you cast at the ballot booth, how they're processed, where they go, weever been showing you all night how they're being counted, secured, and now we're going to show you how they're being procured at city hall. they're loading up the car now, putting the ballots inside. a lot of the boxes have seals on them. they have to deliver these ballots to the city clerk's office, the same exact amount they received from the clerk's office previously. >> we're doing about 30 miles an hour. diane and paul are steadily just moving along so that we can get the ballot

cnn political editor paul steinhauser is there and so is cnn's political reporter shannon travis. good to see both of you. you look very happy. i know you've been working your butts off, but you look lively. paul, let's start with you. there is a debate tonight, another tomorrow. why are they so important? >> well, listen, don. we've seen the whole cycle of debates, they've been so outsized in importance like we've never seen before. the debates make and break candidates t. they broke rick perry. they've broken herman cain and some others. well, that could happen again tonight. the other thing, don, we haven't had a debate there have been 13, but we haven't had one in almost a month. it has been a while and a lot has change. we lost michelle balk p man. rick santorum used to be off to the side. now he'll be in the middle. mitt romney is used to the scrutiny. we'll see if santorum is used to it. one more thing, when i stand next to shannon travis i make him look so small because i'm so big and strong. >> i don't know about that! shannon, let's bring you in here because he mentioned

shannon travis is in northern iowa there's a pretty large caucus going on. >> hey there, wolf. curtain on this whole caucus process, literally and figuratively. one caucus that has not finished it voting but over here empty chairs. this group has finished it voting. this is the precinct captain agnes. you've finished with your caucus gathering. what are the numbers look beening like? >> ron paul was clearly the leader, then newt gingrich close behind him with four. >> how many people? >> 22 in our precinct. >> what happens now with those numbers? >> i'll turn them into the central committee and they send that on to the state level. >> and that gets tabulated? >> correct. >> this is where agnes is taking the numbers over to get tabulated. a nerve center for this arena of 6,000 people. some of the groups are still here but some of the groups have left and the voting is over. >> shannon travis has been living in iowa over the past several months watching what's going on. let's go to ankeny iowa. there's a caucus going on. joe johns is over there. >> probably about 300 people, perh

. >>> let's check in with shannon travis for a political update. t gingrich's event to begin. hi there, shannon. >> reporter: hey there, randi. we're waiting for newt gingrich to step up to the stage at any moment but his supporters are already here. this is by far one of newt gingrich's biggest crowds so far, maybe his biggest in florida. we're at an airport hangar in sarasota, florida. there are a number of republicans here in this area so it would be understandable that he has a lot of supporters but i have two of his supporters here with me. this is ashley hancock and chas toms. chas is 10 years old. he made sure to mention that he'll be 11 in two weeks. i want to start off with you, ashley, and ask you why you're here? >> i'm here to show my support for the speaker and to come out and try to teach my son some of the things my mother and father taught me. how important it is to be active and to be involved in this election and this primary especially. >> reporter: and similar question for you, chas. you're only 10 years old, man, why are you her

. >>> i want to give you shannon tr travis. he is north in panama city. >> we're here in panama city at precinct 8. it's in the distance behind us, but you can't even get there without seeing these election signs. that one for romney, that one back there for newt gingrich, those two fighting desperately for the vote here and across the state. i spoke with sandy hubbard. she is the precinct clerk, and she tells me 245 people have cast votes at this voting place so far. that's relatively light, but when you consider the fact, brooke, that about 632,000 floridians have already cast their votes in absentee ballots, that's not a lot left. a number of candidates have visited the past two days trying to win support here, and mitt romney won this county in 2008, narrowly beating out john mccain. brooke? >> what's interesting, and you pointed out some of the early absentee voting, is the fact that 600,000 or so have already cast their votes, but also one out of four floridians undecided. did you talk to people as they went in? do they s

we may never like the impact of it. >> shannon travis, thank you.e want to bring john avalon in here live to weigh in. here's a big question. can we call santorum the winner? >> look, we called mitt romney the winner with eight votes that turned out not to be true and now by my count, des moines register count rick perry is up 34. there are some holes, but after being granted so much time and ending presidential campaigns and giving real money and momentum and rick santorum up 34 is big, big, big news. >> yesterday, i was reading your piece in "the daily beast" this was yesterday and your headline was, did rick santorum win the iowa caucuses and not mitt romney? how the heck did you have such a heads up on this one? we're just kind of getting these results the day after your piece. >> thank you, ashleigh, i appreciate that. this has been a story for a long time. a young guy, as i talk about the story named edward true reported the day after the caucus that mitt romney had been given 22 votes out of his precinct, when, in fact, he only received two.

. >> cnn's shannon travis is standing by. so what exactly happened with the vote counted?orter: well, basically what happened was human error and missing votes, wolf. on caucus night, a lot of the county chairmen across the 99 were phones in the uninitial results of who got how many votes to the iowa gop headquarters here. they were putting it in a computer. then there was a process to certify, that the iowa gop had to certify them, but there was one step they needed from the county chairmen, something called a form e, saying that what you phoned in is actually accurate. the problem was a lot of the numbers as they were certifies weren't matching. there were some key does that strokes that one in put in 44 when they put in 4, what have you. probably the most significant is eight of the pry since didn't turn any documentation at all, attesting to what they phoned in was actually what they're sending in, so the number changed. as you mentioned, san tore, according to these results won by 34. wolf? >> and that's that. shannon travis on the scene for you. >>> president obama m

shannon travis, you've got your work cut out for you. five months in iowa. >>> joe johns following newt gingrich in iowa 250u day. how's he feeling? >> reporter: newt gingrich lowered expectations to go along with his lower polling numbers but said that he was not going to win after a supporter told him that kind of language is not helpful. is he actually sharpened his language when it comes to mitt romney calling him a liar. expect more of that kind of talk as the gingrich campaign moves to new hampshire, south carolina, and beyond. but for today, the gung rich campaign is expected to wrap up the day at a big caucus site in the cedar falls area and then coming here to des moines to await results. brooke, back to you. >> joe, thank you so much. live 2012 coverage of the iowa caucus is the big show that begins tonight. 7:00 eastern right here on cnn. >>> still ahead, chuck grassley has yet to make an endorsement so i'll put him on the spot hours before the caucuses. we'll hear what the senator has to say live coming up. >>> also a bizarre

shannon travis joins us, he'll all smiles, working day and night, as michael jackson said. shannon, there are two debates between now and the primary, one of them is going on now. does it still look like milt romney's race to lose here? >> reporter: i mean, look, mitt romney is basically trying to solidify his lead here in new hampshire. and part of the purpose of the debate, don, is for all of these candidates to make their last-ditch effort to loaders here in the nation's firster primary here in new hampshire. mitt romney has been the front runner, he's basically lived in the state for the past few minutes. rick santorum, he's got that fresh burst of steam now coming out of the iowa caucuses. only eight votes behind. mitt romney, ron paul, he's been doing real well in the polls. there's a battle for mitt romney to keep his lead, and there's also the battle for number two, who will emerge as pretty much the anti-romney candidate. >> romney is taking most of the flack as a front-runner, but they're going after each other, because they're thinking if i'm not going to be numbe

shannon travis, thank you so much. we heard you just fine.ould get that connection working. thank you. now i want to give you a quick programming note too. be sure to tune in for an on kour presentation of cn's florida republican presidential debate in case you missed it. it's coming your way today at 5:00 p.m. eastern. >>> one man says he's completely contaminated by nuclear waste, but he still says his hometown is worth saving. we're going to give you a glimpse inside japan's exclusion zone. presentation of cn's florida zone. >>> living in a ghost town. one man refusing to leave his toxic town, still quarantined nearly a year after japan's fukushima nuclear disaster. our kyung lah paid a visit to see why he will not go. >> reporter: in the shadow of the fudge skushima nuclear plan. it's inside a government mandated evacuation zone. that hasn't stopped him from refusing to heed the evacuation since the nuclear meltdown very since then you've been living inside an exclusion zone. >> translator: yes, he says. i've remained. >> reporter: it beg

shannon travis joins us from the a town where ron paul is about to hold a town hall meeting. >> reporter: hey there, gary. this is going to be his third stop of today. he had three stops in maine yesterday also. he's been focusing a lot in maine because smaen secaucus state not a primary state. one of the contests that ron paul does relatively well in. he skipped the florida primary. we've been reporting that as rivals have been duking it out there. yeah. ron paul has been here. he's had throngs of supporters. just a short while ago we in freeport, maine, and he was endorsed by the, one of the heiresses. an heiress of the l.l. bean clothing company. earlier today, when he a chance to talk, a few reporter, to talk to dr. paul and asked him about his strategy of focusing on caucuses versus primaries. take a listen. >> it's a strategy designed for our campaign, because there are some other campaigns that have many, many millions of dollars to run a general campaign in the state of florida where winner takes all, even though they've given up half the delegates didn't make a lot o

shannon travis is standing by. shannon, we'll get an exclusive behind the scenes process.t's going on. >> reporter: that's right. you're only going to see it on cnn. think of it like this, wolf. think of it with this question. what happens to your ballot after you cast it? you walk in, fill out the form, whatever, write in, what have you, then you walk away and wait for the results? there's a very long and specific process that happens after that to count them, collect them, and protect them. ultimately because thee are paper ballots to destroy them. you're going to see on cnn tonight an unprecedented display of what happens to the ballots as they go from here, we're here in ward 1 in manchester as you mentioned, to city hall and what happens from then. it's going to be fascinating, wolf. >> shannon, we'll stay in close touch with you as well. let's hope there are no snafus with this count. you know what happens when there are snafus. >> yes, i do. that means we're up all night. >> important to touch base there. we'll be doing that throughout the night. wolf will stay righ

shannon travis in panama city beach. shannon, you just met two very interesting voters.t did they say to you? >> absolutely, wolf. two voters just moments ago who were walking out of this precinct, precinct 8 here in panama city beach. one of them was a 72-year-old man who said he's lived in the area for ten years. i asked who did you vote for. he said ron paul. you know wolf, that's interesting because ron paul hasn't been actively competing in florida. certainly not in this area that's heavily republican area. i asked him if he thought that his vote would have an impact seeing as though dr. paul is not campaigning here. he said yes that it's a vote for smaller government, ending the fed and liberty. and the other person you mentioned that was interesting was a woman. her name was jeanne toms. a mother. she had her son. she said going into this polling location she couldn't make up her mind who to actually vote for. . that's one vote for mitt romney. hopefully some of mitt romney's other supporters are coming here with a little bit more form of support. wolf? >> shannon

i want to talk with cnn's political reporter shannon travis in myrtle beach right now. is this a big deal these conservatives are now backing rick santorum? >> reporter: it is a big deal. think of it this way. there's been no secret these evangelicals wanting to take on somebody like mitt romney. now they are saying it should be rick santorum. two problems. number one, it's coming late in the pros. mitt romney won iowa. mitt romney won new hampshire. secondly, these christian evangelicals tried to do it with mike huckabee in 2008. it didn't work so well. there is question whether their influence is waning. a few issues with that. i can tell you that the rick santorum campaign is happy about this little gift a week before the primary in south carolina. >> you said it's coming late. it's not going to -- you don't think it's going to make a difference in south carolina or in the upcoming primaries or caucuses? is this just something that looks, i don't know, i guess it helps him as a republican, looks good as a conservative, but you don't think it will help him in any cauc

shannon travis, covering it for us at the gingrich event in st. peters's burg. n? >> big time kyra. you can't come to st. petersburg, florida, and not draw distincts with your rivals. a number of republicans, retirees, who are conservative and newt gingrich needs to win here. one of the tat ticks he went after mitt romney. in last night's debate mitt romney and newt gingrich kind of went at it and mitt romney kind of unloaded on who he considered fact after fact after fact going after newt gingrich. well newt gingrich had a response for that today just a few moments ago. take a listen. >> discovered, i guess, that romney has a new debate coach whose specialty is to say as many untrue things as fast as you can to get them all into one or two quick statements. i thought it was kind of wild. >> reporter: now, another thing that newt gingrich said was that romney will have more money in florida than him, but that he will have more people. he also said that that's exactly a mirror image of what happened in south carolina, that propelled him to win, obviously, on satur

let's talk about it with shannon travis who is in myrtle beach. what can we expect? >> reporter: you can expect for the tea party to prove it is still relevant. you know, don they have been facing questions about whether the movement relevant. i have been covering the movement since 2009. they were popular and powerful but they have waned. their influence has waned somewhat since then. tomorrow will be about a show of force. hey we're still here and we can get out big game politicians. we have newt gingrich and rick santorum coming to the event. and jim demeant he has been a big supporter. so it will be a few hundred grass roots activists saying we can still affect change and have a political voice. >> let's talk about the conservative leaders who decided to back rick santorum. good news for him of course. >> reporter: you can best believe. i mean the e-mails from his cam pane and his supporters have been flying since then. yeah, this is good news for him. i mean this kind of santorum momentum started. you were when bob vander plat endorsed him and he came in second

shannon travis is live with us. an indication of things to come today? >> reporter: well, you know what? this could be a real gri time for john huntsman. i mean he'll probably get a really big headline out of this. because one really big thing about this is that the winner of this vote for the republicans since they've been doing this vote since 1960 has gone on to win the republican nomination consistently since 1968. so, because i wasn't really a clear winner, it was tied between mitt romney and john huntsman, again, everybody is expecting mitt romney to do well. but this bodes very well for john huntsman. >> there was a clear winner if you count actual votes. there were three votes for president obama. so he actually had the highest talley. but historically, dixville notch is not so good at picking the democratic candidate. this year i think they're right, aren't they? >> that's right. they had been very good at picking the eventual republican nominee. but they haven't been so good at picking the democratic nominee. or even for that matter the person

our political reporters shannon travis shows us democracy in action in manchester as he follows the ballotm the voting booth to its final resting place. >> this process is far from over. er with following along with the ballots as they are leaving ward one here at the elementary school here in manchester. we will follow along and find out and show you exactly where they are going to the final resting spot. >> this coverage is special because this basically shows you how deplok racy works. how the ballots that you cast at the ballot booth how they are processed. where they go. we have been showing you all night how they have been counted, secured, over at city hall. they are loading up the car right now. putting the ballots inside. you notice that a lot of the boxes have seals on them. they have to deliver these ballots to the city clerk's office the same exact amount that they receive from the clerk's office previously. >> we are doing about 30 miles an hour, via diane and paul, steadily just moving along so we can get these ballots down to city hall. >> we are here watching as diane and p