Winners and Losers Jan. 7: Santorum's Straw Poll Success

The candidates may have been preparing to duke it out in New Hampshire, but that doesn't stop the race toward the S.C. Primary. The Berkeley County GOP held its straw poll on Saturday and it was an early Palmetto State test for candidates.

Winner: Former Sen. , taking more than 50 percent of the straw poll vote in a clear show of strength. The numbers suggest is likely still on the rise.

Meanwhile, Santorum will be heading to South Carolina on Sunday to receive the endorsement of Gary Bauer —an attempt to get social conservatives to rally behind the new top-tier candidate.

At the time of this publishing, we're still more than an hour away from the New Hampshire debates Saturday night, but its not expected that the debate alone will have that much impact on the race in S.C.

Loser: We feel bad kicking a candidate while he's down, but Texas Gov. Rick Perry is today's loser. A fifth-place finish in Iowa wasn't good, and entirely has left a bad taste among supporters.

At the Berkeley straw poll, Perry had no representation to speak for him — even though. In the results, Perry had just three votes among 104. He tied U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and actually came in behind former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who had five votes.

At a point in the campaign where Perry needs to attract new voters, he's going to be spending the next two weeks trying to repair relationships and rebuild bridges with even his strongest supporters.