The pro-Mitt Romney Super PAC has paid $803,000 to a small polling firm that is owned by the senior partners of a prominent Republican consulting company that does the polling for the Romney presidential campaign, according to the campaign finance reports.

The overlap between the two polling firms, located right door to each other in Alexandria, Va., is the latest example of the close and sometimes hidden connections between the presidential campaigns and the theoretically independent Super PACs that are backing the candidates.

It is also a closeness that includes the news media: Under an entirely separate arrangement, the nationally known firm doing the polling for the Romney campaign, Public Opinion Strategies, also conducts half the polling for the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll overseen by Public Opinion partner Bill McInturff and Democratic pollster Peter Hart. 

The latest filing by the pro-Romney super pac, Restore Our Future, show five payments totaling $449,000 last month for “survey research” to a company called NMB Research, listed at 206 N. Fayette Street, in Alexandria. This is on top of five previous payments to the same firm of $354.500.

Virginia corporate records show that NMB Research was incorporated as a Limited Liability Corporation or LLC, but they provide no information about who the owners or partners are. But one clue is the N. Fayette street address. It’s the building next door to Public Opinion Strategies, one of whose senior partners is Neil Newhouse, the chief pollster for the Romney presidential campaign. 

An NBC researcher who visited the address found a sign instructing that all mail and packages for the offices of NMB Research be delivered next door at 214 N. Fayette, the street address of Public Opinion Strategies. 

Federal election laws bar campaign and so-called “independent expenditure” groups such as super pacs – which are unfettered by limits on campaign contributions-- from “coordinating” their operations, including sharing their polling results.

But the Romney presidential campaign, the Romney Super PAC, and Public Opinion Strategies all dispute that any “coordination” or sharing of polling data is taking place. 

“Our campaign follows both the letter and the spirit of the law,” said campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul.

“We do our own polling and it’s exclusively for us,” said Charles Spies, counsel for Restore Our Future. 

Public Opinion Strategies partner McInturff confirmed that he and Newhouse are both partners in NMB Research—an entirely permissible arrangement, he said, so long as the two polling entities do not share the data they collect for their respective clients.

“Like many firms on both sides of the aisle, we recognize the strict federal election laws that apply to our business, which includes work for candidates, political parties and independent expenditure/issue advocacy groups,” McInturff said in an email. “The FEC [Federal Election Commission] rules specifically permit firms such as ours to establish internal firewalls designed to keep our candidate work walled off from the services performed for other types of clients such as independent expenditure groups. In order to follow the law, we have implemented the appropriate FEC firewalls to keep our work for candidates and independent expenditure/issue advocacy groups separate and compliant.”

Fred Wertheimer, who heads a campaign watchdog group that has been urging the Justice Department to investigate “coordination” between the presidential campaigns and super pacs, acknowledged that FEC regulations do “probably” permit the NMB arrangement as described by McInturff.

But, he said, this only shows “the absurdity” of FEC regulations—and the interconnections between the presidential campaigns and Super PACs (which, because they can take unlimited amounts from wealthy donors and corporations, have been financing most of the negative attack ads during the GOP presidential contest.)

"This is an example of common consultants being used by both the campaign and Super PAC,” Wertheimer said. “It’s clearly an example of coordinated activities.”

As for Public Opinion Strategies’ statement that there is a firewall between the two polling firms, Wertheimer said: “There is no such thing as a firewall. How do you know what is going on within an organization? There is no monitor or enforcement. “

The close ties between NMB Research and Public Opinion Strategies is hardly the only example of the blurry lines among consultants working for the campaigns and the Super PACs. 

According to its latest report, Restore Our Future has now paid a total of $456,750 for survey research to another Alexandria consulting firm, Target Point Consulting, that has also been getting payments from the Romney presidential campaign. (Like Public Opinion Strategies, its founder recently told the New York Times that his firm has a “firewall” between those working for the Super PAC. Restore Our Future has also paid $1.9 million to Podium Capital Group, a Beverly, Ma. LLC, set up last year by Steve Roach, a former Romney presidential campaign fundraiser, who now performs the same services for the Romney Super PAC.

But consultant firms serving two masters in this campaign isn’t unique to Romney, either. The latest report filed by Priorities USA Action, the Super PAC backing President Obama, showed $28,000 to Peter D. Hart Research Associates. That’s for the services of veteran Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin, president of Peter Hart Research, whose founder Peter Hart oversees—along with McInturff—the NBC News Wall Street Journal poll.

We noted earlier that Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum again used Etch A Sketches today.

Well, the DNC now has cut its second anti-Mitt Romney Etch A Sketch video.

While Democrats and rivals are having fun with this and continuing to try and fuel a narrative, the buzz around this has died down considerably today and you wonder when -- or if -- it jumps the shark.

By the way, CNBC reports that the biggest benefactor from all this might be the maker of the toy.

It reports: Ohio Art, the company that makes Etch A Sketch, saw its stock jump up a whopping 212.5 percent today.

Issues important to women have been front and center on the national stage -- and in Virginia over the past couple of months with talk of birth control, the kinds of ultrasounds women would be required to get, and personhood amendments.

And a poll out Tuesday morning shows women are fueling President Obama’s increased lead in the critical battleground.

The president is now up by eight points, 50-42 percent, over Mitt Romney in the state that could be key to whether Obama will be back for another four years in the White House, according to a Quinnipiac poll.

That’s up four points from a month ago and represents a 10-point shift from December, when Romney led 44-42 percent.

Even if Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is added to the ticket, the president still holds a commanding 50-43 percent lead.

"President Barack Obama has opened up some daylight in Virginia against his Republican challengers," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in a press release.

The difference has been women. Obama leads Romney with women, 52-39 percent. In December, Romney led with them 45-43 percent, a whopping 15-point change.

The Obama campaign has made a concerted effort to reach out to women, using the benefits of the new health-care law, for example, in mailers in swing states.

The president’s approval rating in the state is 49-47 percent, the first time he has been a net-positive since Quinnipiac started polling Virginia for this cycle last June.  Again, that’s driven by women, who approve of the president 52-43%.

With men and independents, though, the president is still a net-negative.

Kaine leads Allen in Senate race

The race for the U.S. Senate continues to be neck and neck, with former Gov. Tim Kaine leading former Sen. and Gov. George Allen by a narrow, 47-44 percent. But that’s a five-point shift from December, when Allen led 44%-42%.

Women are also backing Kaine (49-40percent) by a wider margin than men (43-46 percent). But not by quite as wide a margin as Obama.

And Kaine may have some room for improvement with black voters. African American backed Obama over Romney 94-5 percent. Kaine got 83-6 percent, so more are undecided. But, as the election nears, Kaine stands to benefit from the president’s efforts in the state, especially with black voters when he’s at the top of the ticket.

Virginia is a crucial Senate toss-up race that could determine control of the upper chamber. The open seat is currently held by retiring Democrat Jim Webb. Republicans need to take over three seats if President Obama loses reelection to win control, four if he wins.

Despite louder and more serious talk among Republican insiders about the possibility of a brokered convention, the Obama campaign once again kept its focus on Mitt Romney.

In a conference call today to respond to Romney’s speech on economic freedom today at the University of Chicago, the Obama campaign slammed Romney's tax plans today and said he faces "a significant trust deficit" with voters, particularly on the issue of gas prices.

"Gov. Romney did not mention the issue of energy and gas prices, and I think that's something that's on the mind of all Americans right now," said Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton economics professor, who was a member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers before leaving the White House in February.

Rouse went on to argue that reducing America's dependence on foreign oil sources would ease the burden of price spikes – and she took aim at Romney for failing to address fuel costs.

But the White House was unable to pass a comprehensive energy policy through Congress even with broad Democratic majorities in the president’s first two years.

The conference call and focus on energy also come as rising gas prices threaten President Obama’s recent momentum and his upcoming tour of swing states to tout new proposals on the subject.

Asked if President Obama's efforts to address those costs are breaking through to the public, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt accused Republicans of failing to give the president credit for new drilling initiatives.

"They're completely distorting the record here," LaBolt said, specifically of GOP candidates of Obama's record on Gulf drilling. "And I think for a candidate like Mitt Romney who's already facing a significant trust deficit with voters across the ideological spectrum that that would compound his issues."

Without mentioning Newt Gingrich by name, LaBolt also took aim at "elected officials who are going out and saying gas is going to be $2.50 if they get elected."

On Solyndra, the energy company the president touted and went belly up after receiving a government grant, the campaign would only say that Romney would "turn his back on the clean-energy sector."

Responding specifically to his speech today, Rouse accused Romney of structuring a tax plan that would hurt middle-income Americans.

"His plan actually makes our tax system more regressive and really will not help out the middle class," she said.

And, touting the White House's regulatory reforms, she disputed the widely repeated GOP critique that regulation generally strangles job creation.

"There is not actually any evidence that regulatory burden actually has a meaningful impact on employment or on the economy now," she contended.

Rogelio Solis / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks at the Mississippi Farmers Market in Jackson, Miss.

Mitt Romney’s campaign and Super PAC have spent more than $2 million ahead of tomorrow’s contests in Alabama and Mississippi. Polls show a tight race, with Romney within the margin of error of the lead against Newt Gingrich.

But Romney is no natural fit in the Deep South -- and he knows it.

"I am learning to say y'all and I like grits,” Romney said Friday. “Strange things are happening to me," added the born-in-Michigan, former Massachusetts governor.

The fact remains that Romney faces an uphill climb tomorrow in Alabama and Mississippi, and it’s not just because he’s not a big grits and biscuits eater. It's demographics.

Looking at three questions in exit polls dealing with education, wealth, and religion, the two states show Romney far outside his comfort zone.

Romney’s wins have all come in places where voters were more educated, wealthier, and less evangelical.

Nine states where Romney won -- and exit polls are available -- showed the average Romney state is a place where 51% of GOP primary voters are college grads, 31% made more than $100,000 a year, and 35% were born-again or evangelical Christians.

The average state Romney lost included 48% college grads, 28% made more than $100,000, and 68% born-again, evangelical Christians. Alabama and Mississippi are even worse than those numbers for Romney.

In 2008, in Alabama, just 42% said they were college grads, 18% made more than $100,000, and 77% were born-again or evangelical Christians. In Mississippi, the numbers were similar -- 38% college grads, 19% made more than $100,000, and 69% were born-again or evangelical Christians.

If the numbers of born-again or evangelical Christians hold, they will be the largest share of any single state to vote yet outside of Tennessee and Oklahoma. Tennessee may be a great example, where Romney allies spent a lot of money, polling started to show him doing well, but in the end, lost by more than pre-primary polls suggested. And Tennessee in 2012 had higher percentages of college grads and those making more than $100,000 than Alabama and Mississippi in 2008.

But if Romney does pull off the win, or does better than expected, of course, that will signal for the first time that Romney can win outside his core groups -- and that conservatives may very well be ready for this race to be over. Or, as some on Twitter and colleagues note, it could just be that Rick Santorum and Gingrich split the conservative vote and give Romney a path to victory.

NBC's Adam Perez contributed to this report.

2008 exit polls:

Mississippi:
38% college graduates
19% made more than $100,000
69% born-again or evangelical Christian

Alabama:
42% were college grad
18% made more than $100,000
77% born again or evangelical

States Romney won 2012:

New Hampshire:
55% college grad
37% made more than $100,000
22% born again/evangelical

Michigan:
51% college grad
33% made more than $100,000
42% evangelical

Ohio:
45% college grad
30% made more than $100,000
49% born again/evangelical

Florida:
50% college grad
31% made more than $100,000
47% born again/evangelical

Nevada:
48% college grad
28% made more than $100,000
28% born-again or evangelical Christian

Arizona:
46% college grad
26% made more than $100,000
42% born-again or evangelical Christian

Massachusetts:
56% college grad
40% made more than $100,000
16% born-again or evangelical Christian

Vermont:
48% college grad
19% made more than $100,000
27% born-again or evangelical Christian 

Virginia:
58% college grad
39% made more than $100,000
46% born-again or evangelical Christian

* Exit polls were not conducted in Maine, Idaho, Wyoming, Guam, the Northern Mariana Island, or the Virgin Islands – all states Romney also won.

States Romney lost 2012

Georgia
52% college grad
38% made more than $100,000
68% born again/evangelical

Iowa
52% college grad
28% made more than $100,000
57% born again/evangelical

Oklahoma
45% college grad
21% made more than $100,000
74% born again/evangelical 

Tennessee
46% college grad
27% made more than $100,000
76% born again/evangelical

South Carolina
47% college grad
27% made more than $100,000
65% born again/evangelical

* Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, and North Dakota did not have exit polls

UPDATED Monday 11:30 am ET

Despite Rick Santorum's big win in Kansas Saturday, Mitt Romney wound up splitting the delegates for the day.

Not because of his weak finish in Kansas, but because of his strong showing in the conventions and caucuses in American territories that get to vote for the nominees for president -- Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

NBC News allocated 33 delegates out of Kansas for Santorum. Romney, who barely cleared a necessary 20 percent threshold to win a portion of the delegates in the Sunflower state, gets seven delegates out of Kansas.

But Romney won all of the delegates out of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands (for a total of 18 - nine each) and the vast majority out of the U.S. Virgin Islands (7). That gave him 25. (Three of the unpledged Virgin Islands delegates had already announced their support for Romney, but they were not factored into NBC's delegate count before yesterday's event.)

Add Romney's seven delegates in Kansas, and that's 32. Plus, another three out of Wyoming for 35. Santorum got three out of Wyoming -- and zero out of the territories -- for 36 for the day. (NBC had previously allocated another four delegates for Romney out of Wyoming. If all of Wyoming is factored in, Romney won seven out of that state.)

Some will talk about how Romney has not yet won over very conservative members of the party, and that was evident once again in Kansas. But the reality is, at this point, it's all about the delegates. And Romney has a near-insurmountable advantage going forward over his rivals as long as he maintains his current rate -- and if Newt Gingrich stays in the race.

As long as Gingrich, who said Friday he's going all the way to the convention, stays in, he will split delegates with Santorum, limiting Santorum's ability to even have a shot at making a real run at Romney. At the same time, though, a one-on-one race could also give Romney the opportunity to pick up even more delegates.

Santorum's campaign has had difficulty with how the delegate process works -- as evidenced by Ohio and his zero delegates out of the territories. Romney sent his son Matt to the Pacific Islands. Santorum made no effort there. Santorum will, however, campaign in Puerto Rico (as will Romney), which has 23 delegates and will vote March 18.

Delegates matter. Remember in 2008, Barack Obama won as many delegates out of Idaho as Hillary Clinton did out of New Jersey.

After Super Tuesday, here are the delegate standings, as of 11:30 am ET, according to the NBC News Elections Desk:

Romney 339
Gingrich 111
Santorum 107        
Paul 30

The score out of just last night's contests:

Romney 220
Santorum 90
Gingrich 81
Paul 22

The means Romney got 65% of his delegate total out of last night's races. But he's still only 29% of the way to the magic number of 1,144 to become the Republican nominee.

NBC News projects Mitt Romney the winning of Vermont.

NBC's Chuck Todd said on the 7:30 broadcast of NBC Nightly News that, by his math, with Romney's wins so far, he's already gotten about a quarter of his target delegates. NBC's John Bailey notes that's assuming he gets all of Virginia's delegates, which looks likely.

NBC News has projected Mitt Romney the winner in Virginia, where just he and Ron Paul were on the ballot.

NBC's John Bailey notes that Romney may very well get all of Virginia's 46 delegates at stake tonight, because of how the delegates are allocated -- 33 are winner take all by congressional district; the 13 at-large delegates are proportional by statewide vote, provided a candidate gets at least 15% of the vote. But a candidate can take all of those delegates if they win a majority in the state.

To play along at home and when to expect calls and characterizations from the NBC News Elections desk, here are the final poll closing times in each state:

7:00 pm ET: Georgia, Virginia, Vermont
7:30 pm ET: North Dakota, Ohio
8:00 pm ET: Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee
9:00 pm ET: Wyoming
10:00 pm ET: Idaho
Midnight ET: Alaska

Newt Gingrich has won Georgia, NBC News projects. Gingrich, the former speaker of the House who represented Georgia in Congress, said Georgia was a must win for him to remain credible as a candidate.

Vermont and Virginia are "too early to call" at this point, but Mitt Romney leads in both.

To play along at home and when to expect calls and characterizations from the NBC News Elections desk, here are the final poll closing times in each state:

7:00 pm ET: Georgia, Virginia, Vermont
7:30 pm ET: North Dakota, Ohio
8:00 pm ET: Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee
9:00 pm ET: Wyoming
10:00 pm ET: Idaho
Midnight ET: Alaska

Maybe more than at any other time in this presidential contest, the politics of Iran came into sharp focus today, as President Obama engaged with his GOP rivals -- though not by name -- over that thorny subject.

And it highlighted the starkly different world views between the incumbent president up for re-election in November and the Republican candidates who are vying to replace him.

“What's said on the campaign trail -- you know, those folks don't have a lot of responsibilities,” Obama said this afternoon in the White House Briefing Room during a news conference, his first in three months and just so happens to fall on Super Tuesday. “They're not commander in chief.”

He criticized them for talking about war with a certain “casualness.” “This is not a game,” Obama said. “And there's nothing casual about it.”

He derided the field for “bluster” and “big talk” that’s “more about politics than actually trying to solve a difficult problem.”

Romney today, showing just how starkly different his worldview is from Obama.

“Israel does not need public lectures about how to weigh decisions of war and peace,” Romney said during a speech before AIPAC, the pro-Israel in Washington. “It needs our support.”

He called the president’s policy, one of “procrastination” and said that he, instead, would make this specific promise: “I will station multiple aircraft carriers and warships at Iran's door.”

Rick Santorum today during his speech before AIPAC echoed the hard-line hawkish views toward Iran that he has espoused throughout the campaign.

“If they do not tear down those facilities, we will tear them down ourselves,” Santorum said, referring to Iran’s nuclear facilities.

He added, in almost direct response to the president’s criticism, “This is not bellicosity and warmongering. This is preventing the most radical regime in the world from having a weapon that could fundamentally change the security posture not just of the Middle East, but as we've seen with planned attacks here in the United States, a nuclear Iran with a nuclear shield to project terror around the world is a nightmare for all freedom-loving people in the world.”

But that’s par for the course for Santorum. Campaigning in New Hampshire back in January, Santorum said that if Iran were to acquire a nuclear weapon, he contended, events like the terrorist attacks on 9/11 would become “a routine occurrence.”

Newt Gingrich during his speech to AIPAC today – once again – invoked a potential “second Holocaust.”

“I would provide all available intelligence to the Israel government, ensure that they had the equipment necessary, and reassure them that if an Israeli prime minister decides that he has to avoid the threat of a second Holocaust through preemptive measures, that I would require no advanced notice to understand why I would support the right of Israel to survive in a dangerous world,” he said.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called for a “declaration of war” vote as a credible step in showing Iran that moving toward making nuclear weapons is unacceptable, NBC’s Debra Pettit reports. He called sanctions useful, but said they haven’t deterred Iran from going forward with their nuclear weapons plans.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he is "against any rush" to have such a vote.

"I think we have to be very cautious," Reid said, adding, "I am not going to be going forward rushing for a declaration of war.” And, like the president, he urged Republicans to stop throwing around the word "war" so casually."

Santorum also acknowledged the politics of the day, this being Super Tuesday.

“This is a somewhat important day in my life today,” he said. “But I wanted to come off the campaign trail to come here, because one of the reasons that I decided to run for president is because of the grave concern I have about the security of our country.”

When asked about Romney's criticism of his foreign policy at today's news conference, Obama showed he's ready for the general-election fight.

"Good luck tonight," he said. "Really!"

Before auto-worker union members, former President Bill Clinton today condemned Mitt Romney for opposing the auto bailout.

And he brought his father into it.

“Every time I hear Mr. Romney talk about this, I think his daddy must be turning over in his grave,” Clinton said. Romney’s father, George Romney, was governor of Michigan and a chief executive at American Motors Corp.

Clinton called the auto bailout the most important decision Barack Obama has made as president.

The former president, a close follower of politics, wasted no time before commenting on the Republican presidential race.

“Watching this Republican primary reminds me that we might as well have a movie on the Spanish inquisition of people passing complex theological exams, and if you fail Question 13, you are out of here.”

The former president said the bailout was a more important decision than the health care act, noting that it is a complicated subject and requires much work for improvement.

He also touched on bipartisanship.

“We have to be driven by a simple idea -- we are struggling to build a country of shared prosperity and shared responsibility,” Clinton said.