Romney won the non-binding caucuses by just three points, 39 percent to Ron Paul’s 36 percent. Rick Santorum trailed in third with 18 percent, and Newt Gingrich received 6 percent of the vote.

Approximately 5600 votes were cast in the caucuses, which began here Feb. 4.

Romney’s Maine victory followed a CPAC straw poll win in which the former Massachusetts governor carried 38 percent of activists’ support to Rick Santorum’s 31 percent.

Romney, whose claim to inevitability had been hampered by three losses in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado on Tuesday, had made a strong last-minute effort to win Maine, airing commercials and choosing Portland as the location of his first audience question-and-answer town hall since Jan. 13. He followed up with two visits to caucus sites Saturday to nail down a state he won easily in 2008 with 52 percent.