he skipped iowa to focus on the began its state. losing in on ron paul with one poll showing him at 16%. all of this as candidates statement two bruising debates in just 12 hours. the weekend events featured aggressive attacks on frontrunner mitt romney who is accused of failing to support conservative values and newt gingrich even told romney to, quote, cut the pious baloney. >>> looking ahead to the rest of january, the gop candidates will battle it out in a total of three state primes, first, new hampshire, of course. that is tomorrow. then south carolina on the 21st and florida on january 31st. 1s >>> one year after the tucson shooting, victims of gun violence in d.c. were honored at a candlelight vigil. hundred gathered at shiloh baptist church in northwest. the crowd heard from local leaders on the need to get guns off the streets and also an emotional plea from the mother of one of six teens killed in a drive-by shooting in march of 2010. >> this is not something that ever goes away. i hurt for my child 24 hours a day, seven d

he skipped iowa. he's been campaigning hard here on the ground for a month. and recent polls this week show him still in single digits and that is of course going to be very devastating to his campaign because he's really banking on a solid performance here, to prove that he can keep going in this race. tonight's debate will be very important for him but as you know he's on the sidelines on this. literaly he's going to be standing on one side of that debate stage. it's unlikely he'll get in the middle of this tussle. it doesn't pay for him to go negative because that's probably the worst thing he could do with so much on the line over the next couple of days. he has nothing to gain from doing that. back to you. >> karen travis reporting for us. the abc news-yahoo! news debate will begin at 9:00 tonight. abc news at 11:00 will be there immediately afterwards and remember abc 7 is your election station. gordon peterson are in new hampshire right now covering the lead up to tuesday's primary. we're going to have a live report from rebecca at 11:00. >> shifting o

perry is going to that area and jon huntsman, he is a man who put everything into new hampshire, he skips iowa. it was 2-2. that community has a good track record of picking up the nominee and if that is any indication of what today will be we could be in a very close race tonight. >> now mitt romney made some comments that has his opponents wrapped up, how do you think it will affect a showing. >> even a lot of democrats have been using this, i like firing people, and he was actually talking about the american'sability to have several options when it comes to health insurance. we should be able to hire and fire them if they are not doing what we wanted them to do. jon huntsman press rick perry. he is out of touch with the average american and he does not understand what people are going through and he does not know whether the polling will help him. >> chris in new hampshire, thank you for that update, we will continue to watch and ken pritchard is following the candidates around meeting voters in very small areas. people in the granite state had multiple opportunities to meet the candidates

he skipped iowa to concentrate all his efforts on winning there. he proved there for a year.distant third. >> we got it done, ladies and gentlemen. i say third place is a ticket to ride, ladies and gentlemen. [laughter] >> jon: a ticket to ride... home. in coach. look how huntsman ends his speech. >> thank you all so very much. >> jon: there's no confetti for third place. third place doesn't get confetti. the only confetti is third place can get is, "i can't believe i moved here for a year and i lost." i was trying to make that into smaller pieces and then it would have looked more like confetti, but obviously my hand speed is not what it used to be. thritis and maybe good... how's a guy spend a year in new hampshire and not connect with the gone et state's salt of the earth, bedrock, american loving yankee, just roll the tape. >> as they would say in china, mitt... [speaking mandarin] [laughter] >> jon: oh, right, he speaks mandarin. i can't believe that's not impressive to a republican primary audience who won't even eat mandarin on, because they don't want to take jobs awa

he skipped iowa to concentrate here. >> you have to be on the ground ground and have ideas that rent future. >> reporter: he is going after voters who haven't made up their minds. >> have you selected a candidate? >> i'm not sure yet. i'm still a little undecided. >> reporter: still, polls show him way behind former massachusetts governor romney, who owns a home in the state. rick santorum, who finished a close second last night in iowa, now faces a challenge of coming up with enough money to present his message to new hampshire voters in just one week. and keep in mind, he spent almost all of his time in iowa. reporting live in manchester, randall pinkston, back to you. >> a question for you, randall. with michele bachmann jumping out of the race, does that help or hurt any of the remaining candidates,. >> reporter: you would think it would appeal to conservative michele bachmann supporters go to either rick perry or to newt gingrich. but perry, staying in the race, is probably going to do more damage to gingrich than to anyone else. >> thank you, randall pinkston. stay warm in new h

he skipped iowa to focus on the granite state. and his superpack has upped the attacks on romney. >> i'm out working for and earning your support. i just have a request of you. i want your vote. >> reporter: gop donors are giving rick santorum a serious look. abc news has learned he's raised $2 million in two days. paula and rob? >> santorum is seeing this surge in cash. but can he raise enough for what is likely to be a long and pretty drownout campaign? >> reporter: it's got to be difficult for him. santorum just does not have the kind of money that mitt romney has. the romney campaign says it has raised over $20 million over the last three months. but ron paul, on the other hand, is rolling in dough. his campaign says it's raised $13 million over the last three months. mitt romney has the cash, the money in the bank to spend. >> all right. tahman bradley. thanks for that live report this morning. appreciate that. >>> and a reminder. just one day until the candidates' first clash since iowa. see the debate right here on abc news

he skipped iowa to focus on the granite state. >> i am working for and earning your support. ave a request. i want your vote. >> gop donors are giving santorum a serious look. he has raised $2 million in the last few days. reporting live in northwest washington, tahman bradley, abc 7. >>> more bold statements on newt gingrich. yesterday during a campaign stop he said that he's going to go before the naacp and urge black people to demand paychecks, not food stamps. he called president obama the best food stamp president in american history. gingrich said that he would pitch a new social security program aimed at helping african american men who said get the smallest return on social security. stay with abc 7 news, your election station for complete coverage of the gop primary. gordon peterson and rebecca cooper will be in hampshire for primary and there will be reports on line and on air. >>> maryland state senator anthony muse is running for u.s. senate. >> yes we can. this is america's dream. thank you. with your help i will be your next united states senator. >> the prince o

not only did he skip iowa, he insulted iowa. gingrich and huntsman at 7. if huntsman finishes in single digits, he is done. he can say a newspaper that knows mitt romney has given me its endorsement. "the boston globe" is red by a lot of people in new hampshire. it gives governor huntsman something at a time when he needs something to grasp on. he's trying to keep his spirits up. he's camped out here and if you look at huntsman right now, we've got five days to go. looks pretty bleak for him at the moment. >> let us know what you think on facebook, google plus or add s c to your circles. >>> up next, president obama triggering a showdown with the senate by going around the senate. he says he's doing what he was elected to do. republicans call it a power grab. keeping both sides honest. >>> also tonight, the syrian dictatorship, they've been lying about the killings to the rest of the world seeing it daily. now, a top level defector from the regime is telling the truth. he's calling this a genocide and he's only talking to cnn. >>> later, this is how we're

he skipped iowa to concentrate all his efforts there. no confetti for third place. how does a guy spend a year in new hampshire and not connect? >> as they would say in china, mitt -- [ speaking foreign language ] >> oh, that's right. he speaks mandarin. right. i can't believe that's not impressive to a republican primary audience who won't even eat mandarin oranges because they don't want to take away jobs of american fruit. i know this is hard for you, but it's over. it's time to put the confetti into storage. let me put this in terms you can understand. [ speaking foreign language ] >> huntsman may not have connected in new hampshire with the voters, but he didn't do badly with those of us covering the race. >>> up next, not too many kids can say they've spent a great portion of their youth in the white house. according to michelle obama, her young daughters don't revel in all the attention drawn by their parents. let's hear a few examples from a portion of the first lady's interview that aired on cbs this morning. >> what do you and t

he skipped iowa and the result is he's an asterisk and he's never going to get beyond that. >> i wanto you in a second about jon huntsman. but in looking at it now, what does your gut tell you that the top three will be? >> i predicted all along that santorum will do better than people expect. i think he can get in the top three. it looks to me like romney, paul, and santorum. but i think -- don't count out congressman -- or senator -- excuse me. i think the other one that could do better than some expect would be governor perry. and also gingrich who just a few weeks ago was ahead, and i don't know where he's going to end up but he seems to be going down. it is really wide open and it really depends upon who turns out. i think we're going to have a good turnout. i think people are really concerned about the direction of the country and they want a new leader. >> let me talk to you a bit about november and iowa. the president won here by 9 1/2 percentage points the last time around here. he has quite a team here. the obama folks are out pushing today about what kind of structure they

he skipped iowa and has bad blood with romney. >> none of the endorsements that romney have picked up thing. >> reporter: two years ago he backed romney and switched to mccain. mccain never forgot it. the average of the polls show romney at 26%. gingrich behind im. paul in third and perry and santorum. the coming days will be a pitched battle as gingrich, santorum and rick perry all try to rally conservative republicans against romney. which only goes to show he remains the man to beat. >> bret: carl cameron live in manchester. we'll head that way saturday. let's dig deeper in how rick santorum fought his way to a close second. correspondent steve brown is in des moines and says it may have a lot to do with who was not there. >> thank you so much, iowa. >> reporter: rick santorum, center stage in iowa, a hair away from victory at the end of a caucus campaign where undecided was the norm. >> i can't tell you how many people i talk to said i made my decision in the last few hours, i am going to support "x" candidate. this was the most fluid race i've seen here. >> reporter: in part beca

he finished third in nasm. i skipped iowa and -- new hampshire. pped iowa and tried to bank everything on on south carolina. the thought is get out now. jon huntsman sees mitt romney as the front-runner. last night at about 5:30, they sent out an e-mail fund-raiser to all of their supporters saying we got the endorsement of the state newspaper, the largest newspaper in south carolina. shows we have momentum. unfortunately, about the same time, the huntsman family was sitting down and basically saying it's time to end this bid for the white house. so in that sense, yes. huntsman had some good times but he would just never get going in a way to get himself up in the top tier of candidates. and now with only five candidates on stage, we are left with two debays. we will see if had means more jobs from newt gingrich. >> huntsman i understand had to take a lot of the negative comments he had on his website about mitt romney. >> yeah. this is politics. somebody e-mailed me and said how can somebody say so many positive things about mitt romney and -- neg

don't think john huntsman can get any left lift and not a part of any dialogue for weeks because he skipped iowance. >> rose: and also goes around saying it doesn't matter. >> that is not -- so once you are out of the dialogue i think mitt romney's basic strategy has been to make few errors, stand along, everybody else will fall and finally people will say where else do to go, let's nominate mitt romney i think that has been his strategy. >> david. >> if i would amplify that point, if you are not authentic you can't assess rifb, if an intuitive peeled feel for the party or the electorate is you can take a chance because tuitively it feels right to you and you are in tune with the party so you can leap off that bridge because you know it just feels right, but if you don't have that intuitive feel, you have got to do a study for everything so you can't take any risky maneuvers and i think that sort of has been hisroblem, a couple of years ago or many years ago i had a chance to have dinner when i was a young book reviewer with tom clancy, and clancy started waxing rhapsodic about military hardwe a

he skipped iowa entirely and basically moved to this state. he has spiked in the polls down the home stretch in the last couple of days. i talked to him this afternoon about it on "studio b." >> nothing like catching that buzz at the very end. that's textbook timing. you never know if it's going to happen or not. all i can tell you is i woke up this morning with the belief that we have done everything possible in new hampshire. we have worked it tirelessly. we have done 170 public events, town hall meetings and house parties. we have deployed my dearts, my wife. we have been honest, sincere. >> shepard: the candidates out in force. one last time today. now they can only wait and see what the voters have to say. 12 delegates up for grabs. don't take it for granted. we have team fox coverage here in new hampshire. molly line our new england correspondent live at ron paul's primary headquarters. steve brown with the santorum campaign. first, let's get to campaign carl cameron live at romney headquarters in manchester. is mitt romney running away w

he skipped the iowa caucuses to concentrate all of his efforts here in advance of next tuesday's primary. >> you have to be on the ground, shake hands, you have to have ideas that represent the future of this country. >> still, polls show him way behind former massachusetts governor romney who owns a home in the state. randall pinkston, cbs news, manchester, new hampshire. >>> now, the campaign moves to new hampshire. the granite state will hold its primary next tuesday mitt romney is expected to win there. it gives him a 27--point advantage. ron paul is in second place in the poll followed by former utah governor john huntsman. huntsman chose to skip the iowa caucuses. >>> president obama will do a little campaigning of his own in ohio today because he visits cleveland to talk about the economy. last night, the president reached out to iowa voters in a live web chat from washington. he also had ads all over the des moines register web site. >>> well, this morning's bitter cold weather caused some problems for metro commuters. the trains are running now but the intense cold weather cause

he skipped iowa to focus on new hampshire. >> we've done everything humanly possible over the last many months. now the voters of this state who i know are well informed. they're going to turn out and make a decision that they feel strongly about. >> ifill: romney's other rivals also worked to chip away at his lead as they fought through the election day media crush but none of them went as far as to predict an upset. former speaker of the house newt gingrich actually conceded a romney victory last night. >> texas congressman ron paul who placed third in iowa worked to hold on to his solid second place poll standing here to come in as new hampshire runner-up. former pennsylvania senator rick santorum finished in a virtual tie with romney in iowa and has spent more time in new hampshire than any other candidate other than romney and huntsman. he said the focus should be who can beat president obama. >> vote for the candidate who has the best chance of matching up against barack obama, winning this election with broad, bold contrasts. we need to make barack obama the issue in this campaig

iowa and traveled all 99 counties. he said early on that he would campaign hard and the state but he gave no indication that in the case of rodney he might skip over iowa and move straight to new hampshire. >> another factor that has helped santorum so much is not only the sport support of evangelical christian leaders but he did have a lot of money so he was campaigning which is how campaigning used to be done in iowa, throughout retail campaigning. through retail campaigning. of course here's a guy who held the lead at one time ronni spends over $4 million in advertising in december alone and much of it and that newt gingrich. much of it aimed at newt gingrich. iowa republicans have picked a flavor of the month only to see them melt under the increased media scrutiny and a very serious missteps. in august 5th months before the caucuses that front runner was minnesota congresswoman michele bock men. she won the iowa straw poll but lost favor among voters over controversial statements. >> an earthquake and hurricane are you were listening? the american people have done everything they possibly can now it's time for an act of god and we are ge

he skipped iowa, spent all of his time here, put all of his eggs in a new hampshire basket. ing a little bit of a surge in the polls for him right now. he could come out tomorrow night and maybe surprise with a third place, maybe even a second place. and rob and paula, that would really shake up this race. >> karen, thank you so much for joining us live in manchester. and stay warm. all right? >> another shake-up in the gop race. kind of incredible there, now seeing huntsman come on strong. he's a very smart guy. but of course the card they play against him is that look, he worked for obama as an ambassador to china. which he defended well in the debates over the weekend. but again, republican voters still just not very happy with the field. 44% say the field they have so far is just fair or even poor. no one is falling in love here with any of these guys. >> and i wanted to clarify, and she went over this in her piece about romney, because all we're hearing is that romney, he likes being able to fire people. >> right. bigger context. >> rick perry's ring tone over and over.

he skipped iowa. the result is, he is going on -- he is an asterisk and will never get beyond that. >> that's candy crowley talking to him. so let's speak right now with jon huntsman, joining us live from manchester, new hampshire. thanks for joining us. >> hey, soledad. >> have you regretted the decision you have made to skip this state and go straight to new hampshire? >> no regrets, soledad. you have to lay out your assets and your resources and states where you think you can do best. and the rap on me is that huntsman guy can go on and win the general election. can he do well in some of the early primary states? this is a state that likes to reward underdogs. this is a level playing field where you have republicans, independents, and maybe a few democrats turn out in the primary. and it is a primary. and i think if you work it hard and if you have a message as i do, and if you are willing to do 140, 150 public event and town hall meetings as i have done in this state, i think you're rewarded for th

he didn't have a strong showing in iowa or new hampshire. he actually skipped campaign there is following the iowa caucuses and right now, it was between rick perry, newt gingrich and rick santorum the fight for the social conservative vote here in south carolina. so a lot of people were pressuring perry to get out of the race so that vote did not get split so it's no surprise that he dropped out today. no one is surprised by this. >> well, and especially mr. gingrich, he is going to score some votes i'm sure from rick perry dropping out. very good. danielle nottingham, live for us in south carolina, thank you. >>> closer to home, san francisco's sheriff vows to fight the domestic violence charges that are filed against him. he is expected to plead not guilty in about two hours from now. anne makovec is outside the courthouse with what his lawyers are asking for. she joins us with more. should be quite the scene in that courtroom i would imagine, anne. >> reporter: certainly. it's kind of a surreal day in san francisco history. here's our new sheriff now a defe

. >> reporter: he skipped iowa to campaign exclusively in new hampshire. >> hello, south carolina! >> reporter: but argues he can go on. balting for fourth place, newt gingrich and rick santorum gave duelling speeches. rick santorum acknowledging his iowa momentum couldn't propel him past romney's huge advantages here. >> for someone who wants to think this race could be over in one or two states, states that have been the backyard and the home of a certain candidate, we have an opportunity to be the true conservative. >> this campaign is going to go on. >> reporter: gingrich, with an ever sharper attack against romney, argued he's the one who can take on the president. >> i believe it will take someone who is capable of debating barack obama face to face, delivering the conservative message, winning the argument in order to overcome his billion dollar machine. i will do everything i can to win the opportunity to represent you this fall in debating and then defeating barack obama. thank you, good luck and god bless. >> reporter: rick perry, the texas governor skipped new hampshire a

he skipped iowa. went to new hampshire. >> he said at the top, he's got to do better than people expect him to do. this is a state, that's very tough to do well in, because their just so many independent voters. right now, huntsman running third place, about 16%. there's also that issue of showing the voters that he's the kind of guy who can go the distance that he's electability, in other words, he talked about that earlier here on cnn. >> all of that is terribly important. in the general election, electability will depend on your ability to cross the traditional boundaries. >> i talked to a lot of people around this state who said that this state is right for jon huntsman. they like his world view, that he's been engaged in national service as ambassador to china. the question is whether he can get those people to the polls. >> what about ron paul, we understand that polls show that he coming in a close second, is that correct? >> at least for now. not surprising either here. he's got a lot of young