Via the Des Moines Register:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney seems to have taken a substantial lead among Republican voters in Iowa just days before the Republican Straw Poll in Ames, according to a University of Iowa poll released Wednesday.

Romney, former Massachusetts governor, was favored by 21.8 percent of 330 Iowa Republican voters surveyed July 29-Aug. 5. This is almost double Romney’s support in a March poll conducted by the U of I, the university reported.