Ire on the campaign trail is heating up and GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney is the prime target.  The former Massachusetts governor has seen his comfortable lead in South Carolina fading.  Romney now holds a 10-percentage point lead over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the Palmetto State.  Rick Santorum is also seeing a bump in support, coming largely from the Evangelical community.

A CNN/Time/ORC International poll showed Romney earning the support of 33 percent of those polled with Gingrich following in second with 23 percent.  Santorum polled in third with the support of 16 percent of likely GOP primary voters.  Two weeks ago Romney held 19-point advantage.

Romney has taken numerous hits in the last 24 hours after declaring he paid a tax rate of around 15 percent, below what most Americans pay.  Reuters reports the low tax rate is the result of Romney’s investments “and under the U.S. tax code, capital gains are taxed at 15 percent.”  He has also come under fire in South Carolina, a conservative and relatively religious state, for what Gingrich called pro-abortion policies while Romney was governor of Massachusetts.

While speaking at an event in Warrenville, S.C., Gingrich warned the crowd that Romney would run a campaign that was “unendingly dirty and dishonest for the next days because they are desperate.”

The five remaining candidates will square off in the second debate of the week on Thursday, and it is expected that the candidates will be focused on hitting Romney, the winner in Iowa and New Hampshire.  A Romney victory in South Carolina would virtually assure him the GOP nomination.