LEWISTON — So far it’s Mitt Romney in a doughslide.

A cookie-dough slide, that is. In a new twist on election polling, Grant’s Bakery is taking part in a nationwide promotional event that even its promoters are calling “half-baked.”

The bakery and hundreds of others around the country are offering customers sugar cookies with an edible cartoon image of either President Barack Obama or his Republican challenger Mitt Romney on the front.

As of Tuesday at Grant’s Bakery, Romney was ahead by a nearly 3-1 margin, 104 cookies sold to Obama’s 38.

Bakery co-owner Doug Grant said he was surprised by the lead in a city that typical leans Democratic — but there may be a small reason for it.

“Well, the local Republican Party headquarters are just down the street,” Grant said, noting that some of the volunteers recently bought 30 Romney cookies.

But the voting — er, eating — continues and you can still take a bite out of Obama or Romney. The cookies are on sale until Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6.

The cookies — $1 each at Grant’s — are being baked around the country as part of an election-season promotion by the Retail Bakers of America.

In 2008, the RBA campaign was actually reflective of the overall vote. Bakeries sold 74,000 cookies that year: 59 percent featured Obama and 41 percent featured the face of Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Obama ended up winning with 52.9 percent of the vote to McCain’s 45.7 percent.

But, like smart businesspeople everywhere, Grant isn’t saying which candidate he likes or even which cookie tastes better.

“I think it’s a matter of your perspective,” Grant said. “It’s whichever one you like.”

Some customers have complained there aren’t other options. One man who came into the store to buy a cake Tuesday said he wished there was a Ron Paul cookie.

But nobody has been outraged about it. It is, after all, a cookie, Grant said.

Most customers see the sale as good-natured fun and something a little sweeter than all of the ads they’ve been seeing on television these days, Grant said.

If a person’s political sensitivities are going to be offended, it’s probably not going to be over a cookie, he said.

In the news release announcing the sale, Grant’s had some fun with puns:

“Take a moment to digest the information . . . Take time to vote, your plate is never too full for freedom. Neglecting your voting responsibility is a recipe for disaster . . . just some food for thought.”

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