CONCORD, New Hampshire - November 18, 2011 - In the shock poll of the day, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has pulled into a statistical tie with Mitt Romney in the former Massachusetts governor’s backyard, New Hampshire.

The poll of likely Republican primary voters by Magellan Strategies for the online New Hampshire Journal shows Romney with 29% in the Granite State, within the poll’s 3.6-percentage-point margin of error, over Gingrich’s 27%. Texas Rep. Ron Paul has 16% support, with former pizza company executive Herman Cain at 10%.

Gingrich’s rise has been chronicled in a slew of state and national polls this week. A Rasmussen Reports poll - known as one of the more biased polls - in Iowa Thursday gave Gingrich a double-digit lead over his competition in Iowa, 32% to Romney’s 19% to Cain’s 13%.

But Romney has been skittish about committing time and effort to Iowa, where caucus goers head to the polls in less than seven weeks. New Hampshire, in contrast, is his firewall. A big victory Jan. 10 in the state next to his home - where he owns a lake house - is supposed to propel him to South Carolina and Florida, and on to the Republican nomination.

Even a close second place finish for Gingrich in the Granite State would be a significant political boost - and a blow to Romney.