Mitt Romney, who has struggled keeping support among conservatives in recent days, won a majority of the conservatives in DC this week for CPAC. Romney won the CPAC straw poll with 38% of the vote. The surging Rick Santorum came in second with 31%. Newt Gingrich came in third with 15%. Last year’s winner, Ron Paul, came in fourth with 12%. 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was the number one choice for vice president. 

3,408 of the supposedly 10,000 or so who attended CPAC participated, the second-highest ever participation in a CPAC straw poll. Before the poll was announced, organizers warned that it would probably be skewed because the percentage of young people at CPAC vastly outpaces the percentage of young people in the conservative electorate. 

The results were first posted by the sponsor of the straw poll, the Washington Times.