Michigan Poll: Santorum 34, Romney 30, Gingrich 12, Paul 9

The Detroit News reports on its latest poll of likely Republican voters in Michigan:

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has a slim lead over Mitt Romney, an indication the Michigan native son has yet to convince state voters he should be the Republican nominee for president, a Detroit News poll shows.

Santorum leads Romney 34 percent to 30.4 percent among likely Republican primary voters, but the gap is within the margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had support from 11.6 percent of respondents, former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul had 8.9 percent and 12.4 percent was undecided.

Despite Romney's win here in 2008 and the built-in advantages of name recognition and familiarity, party regulars appear to have doubts about his conservative credentials and the worth of his Michigan ties. It may cost him the dominant primary victory many expected.

The RealClearPolitics average of Michigan Republican primary polls has Santorum up by 8.2 percentage points. The RCP tally: Santorum 37.0, Romney 28.8, Paul 10.6, and Gingrich 10.