COLUMBIA, S.C.,Jan 21 (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney must overcome wily political veteran Newt Gingrich in the South Carolina primary today to keep his march toward the party's nomination on track.
Gingrich's sudden rise in recent days has presented Romney with the biggest challenge yet in months of campaigning to become the Republican who will face President Barack Obama in November.
With two other candidates trailing in the polls, the primary looks like a straight fight between the two very different men.
A multimillionaire ex-businessman who runs a sleek campaign, Romney has consistently won the support of a quarter of Republicans nationally with his message on jobs and the economy. But he has failed to capture the hearts of many conservatives.
Gingrich is a former history teacher who roams off message and has a checkered past but a killer turn of phrase in debates. "It's about which one of them can beat Obama," said Vaughan Mureaux, a retired school administrator in South Carolina who originally supported Romney but was impressed when he attended a Gingrich speech this week.
Fuelled by a grudge that has become almost personal, former House of Representatives Speaker Gingrich has sown seeds of doubt among Republicans who were beginning to see Romney as the inevitable nominee after strong showings in the first two votes in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Romney has stumbled, acknowledging in the last week he pays a much lower tax rate than most Americans and struggling to answer questions about a planned release of tax records.
With only hours left before the voting in South Carolina, the former Massachusetts governor's campaign tried to turn the tables and ask for more information about ethics violations for which Gingrich was sanctioned in Congress in the 1990s.
"Don't you love these guys? He doesn't release anything, he doesn't answer anything. And he's even confused about whether or not he will ever release anything. And then he's decided to pick a fight over releasing stuff," Gingrich said.
Animosity between the two has been festering since December, when a group supporting Romney launched a blitz of negative TV ads in Iowa that effectively ruined Gingrich's campaign there.
He has hit back by attacking Romney's business record.
The fight has been bruising in South Carolina, a conservative state with a history of dirty politics.The pair could not even agree to avoid each other on election day. Both Romney and Gingrich have campaign events scheduled at the same time on Saturday morning at Tommy's Country Ham House in Greenville.
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