Rick Perry statistically tied with Romney in new 2012 polls

Rick Perry is still weeks away from announcing whether he'll run for president in 2012. But his potential candidacy already appears to be challenging Mitt Romney's front-runner position for the GOP nomination.

Two new polls find Perry statistically tied with Romney in the 2012 GOP race. A Fox News survey released late Thursday found Romney leading Perry by just 3 points among likely GOP primary voters, 17 percent to 14 percent. Meanwhile, a new CNN/ORC International poll released Friday found Romney just two points ahead of Perry, 16 percent to 14 percent. (Both results were within the two polls' margins of error.)

The surveys appear to indicate Republicans are still largely unsettled about Romney as their party's best bet to challenge President Obama and are looking for an alternative.

While Perry has made no direct mention of Romney in his 2012 musings, the Texas governor has said he feels "called" to the race because he believes GOP voters want more options. He's sought to cast himself as a strong social and fiscal conservative—in contrast to Romney's more moderate political past.

It's a message that appears to be working. According to CNN, Perry leads the entire GOP field among Republicans who describe themselves as "tea party supporters," with 22 percent support. That's a five-point lead over tea party favorite Michele Bachmann and a 10-point lead over Romney. By comparison, Romney leads among those "neutral" to the tea party, with 22 percent support. Rudy Giuliani follows, with 17 percent support. Perry, meanwhile, receives just 5 percent support among non-tea partiers.

As a Perry candidacy appears to be gaining serious momentum, those within his party are starting to swipe at the Texas governor. In an email to supporters Thursday, Mike Huckabee trashed Perry, questioning his conservative principals.

"For all his new found commitment to hyper-conservatism, he'll get to explain why he supported pro-abortion, pro-same sex marriage Rudy Guiliani last time," Huckabee wrote.

The former Arkansas governor's criticism is notable because he's insisted he's still neutral in the 2012 GOP primary. But it may be more than just policy differences that prompted him to take a shot at Perry. There's been some degree of bad blood between Huckabee and Perry since 2008, when in the final weeks of the GOP primary Perry endorsed John McCain over Huckabee for the nomination. It's a slight that Huckabee complained about at the time and apparently hasn't forgotten.