{mosads}Gingrich leads with 30 percent, followed by Santorum at 29 percent, Romney at 28 percent and Ron Paul at 7 percent.
The poll has a 4 percent margin of error.
Alabama, Mississippi, Hawaii and American Samoa will hold their primaries or caucuses next Tuesday. Caucuses will be held in Kansas, Guam, Northern Marianas and the Virgin Islands this Saturday.
The poll is encouraging for the Romney campaign, as the former Massachusetts governor has so far been getting crushed by Gingrich and Santorum in the Southern states.
There has been very little polling in Alabama, however, and no consistent front-runner has emerged from those results.
Gingrich has scored big victories in South Carolina and in his home state of Georgia, while Santorum took first place in Tennessee and Oklahoma.
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Romney’s only victories in the South have come in Florida, where he vastly outspent his opponents in an expensive media market, and in Virginia, where neither Gingrich nor Santorum qualified for the state’s primary ballot.
Gingrich has staked his campaign on a “Southern strategy,” and earlier this week canceled campaign stops in Kansas to focus on Mississippi and Alabama, which his campaign manager R.C. Hammond has said are must-wins if he is to remain a viable candidate.
Santorum also needs victories in these states to remain competitive, as the calendar has lined up favorably for him, with Southern and Plains states dominating the March primaries and caucuses. The former Pennsylvania senator will need momentum from these contests leading up to some of the bigger states that Romney is expected to take, such as New York.