PORTSMOUTH, N.H. ? Rudolph Giuliani bailed out of a critical early voting test in Iowa on Wednesday – a sign of his relative weakness in the first-caucus state – but was spared from political embarrassment when Republican presidential rival John McCain pulled out, too.

The two announced they would skip the August straw poll in Ames, Iowa, although they still hope to win the state’s kickoff caucuses five months later.

The joint exit by the top GOP contenders rendered the contest largely meaningless, but Iowa GOP Chairman Ray Hoffman predicted Giuliani and McCain would pay the price in the caucuses for shunning the straw poll. “They are missing a huge opportunity,” he said.

Giuliani’s decision reinforced widespread speculation that he expects to largely bypass Iowa and other early contests to focus on Feb. 5, when he hopes New York and California, among others, will make him the nominee.

But he has been trailing in New Hampshire and South Carolina, too, meaning he could come out of the first three races winless and hobbled by second-place finishes or worse.

“It’s a very risky strategy,” New Hampshire GOP Chairman Fergus Cullen said Wednesday.

As in Iowa, Cullen also said he questions how seriously Giuliani is running to win in New Hampshire, where the former New York mayor held one of his first campaign-sponsored town hall meetings Wednesday outside Portsmouth.

“Rudy Giuliani has an opportunity strategically to demonstrate that he can attract the votes of independents and moderates by doing so in New Hampshire. It’s unclear from (his campaign’s) actions whether they’re going to act on that,” Cullen said.

Giuliani could face tough challenges in both Iowa and New Hampshire from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who Wednesday opened a new line of attack by questioning whether Giuliani could run as a “family values” Republican, a seeming reference to his three marriages and checkered personal history.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden denied his boss was referring to Giuliani’s personal life, saying Romney was speaking of his support for abortion rights and gay rights, compared with Romney’s promotion of anti-abortion and anti-gay-marriage policies.

Romney had been expected to try hard to win the Ames straw poll. That might have contributed to Giuliani’s decision to skip it, given that it could cost upward of $3 million to compete and he might have lost badly.