Poll: Gingrich leads in SC
A tracking poll from Public Policy Polling has former House Speaker Newt Gingrich leading Republican presidential nomination frontrunner Mitt Romney in South Carolina by six points.
The PPP tracking poll has Gingrich at 35 percent and Romney at 29 percent. Ron Paul and Iowa caucus winner Rick Santorum are well back in a third-place tie at 15 percent.
The lead for Gingrich is largely with the party’s conservative base in South Carolina. Gingrich has a 40 percent-to-22 percent lead over Romney among evangelicals and a 46 percent-to-21 percent among Tea Party voters.
Romney is leading with non-evangelicals (39-30), independents (30-26), moderates (44-23), and women (32-31).
More online: www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/01/gingrich-maintains-6-point-lead.html.
PPP: Iowa headed to photo finish
Ron Paul holds a slim lead in Iowa heading into this week’s Republican presidential caucuses, but Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have made up a lot of ground in the past week, making it anybody’s ballgame at this point in time.
Paul was at 20 percent in polling released Monday by Public Policy Polling, with Romney at 19 percent and Santorum at 18 percent. New Gingrich was in fourth at 14 percent, with Rick Perry in fifth at 10 percent.
Santorum is the surprise mover and shaker in the race, improving eight points since last week’s PPP survey of Iowa voters. According to the PPP numbers, Santorum enjoys a wide advantage in net favorability, with 60 percent of voters in Iowa giving him a favorable view and 30 percent saying they view him unfavorably. No other candidate is above the 52 percent barrier in favorability. Read more
PPP: Paul continues to lead in Iowa
Texas Congressman Ron Paul continues to hold a modest lead in Iowa as the days count down to the first presidential contest of the 2012 presidential cycle.
Public Policy Polling has Paul at the front of the pack of contenders in the Iowa Republican caucuses at 24 percent. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is second at 20 percent, with recent national frontrunner Newt Gingrich in a distant third at 13 percent.
Michele Bachmann is at 11 percent, and Rick Perry and Rick Santorum are both at 10 percent.
Paul’s strength in Iowa, according to PPP, is with independent and Democratic voters intending to cross the lines to vote in the GOP caucuses. Paul has a 39 percent-to-12 percent lead over Romney among the 24 percent of voters saying they will take part in the caucuses and also say that they are independents or Democrats. The 76-year-old also has a strong following among younger voters, with a 35 percent-to-11 percent lead over Romney among voters under 45.
Paul also leads Romney 38 percent to 13 percent among the 45 percent of the likely Republican electorate that does not regularly watch Fox News. Romney, surprisingly, leads among the Fox News-viewing cohort with 27 percent, to 16 percent for Gingrich, 15 percent for Bachmann and 12 percent for Paul.
More online at www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2011/12/paul-maintains-his-lead.html.
Poll: Gingrich leads nationally, but …
The good news for Newt Gingrich – and if you’re a loyal backer of the former House Speaker, don’t get too excited, but here it is: Gingrich continues to lead the Republican presidential field in the national polls.
The bad news: His campaign appears to be cratering in Iowa and New Hampshire, the homes of the first two nomination contests on the 2012 election schedule.
Public Policy Polling has Gingrich comfortably ahead of Mitt Romney and Ron Paul in its national polling – with Gingrich at 35 percent, Romney at 22 percent and Paul at 11 percent. Even in that poll, there was better news for Romney, long considered the almost-frontrunner in the GOP field whose main problem has been his ability to get Republican voters to embrace him. They may finally be warming up to the former Massachusetts governor, with this week’s PPP poll showing that 55 percent of Republican voters view Romney favorably, and that Romney is the top second choice of current Gingrich supporters. Read more
Poll: Kaine builds lead in Senate race
For the first time in the walkup to their anticipated 2012 U.S. Senate race, Democrat Tim Kaine has built a small lead over Republican George Allen.
A Public Policy Polling survey of Virginia voters released Thursday has Kaine with a 47 percent-to-42 percent lead over Allen in the matchup of former governors. The race had been a tossup in three previous PPP polls in 2011. The Kaine surge is due to a switch in preferences of independent voters, who at one point this year had given Allen a nine-point edge, but now favor Kaine by four points.
Kaine has a significant lead among the 34 percent of Virginia voters who say they do not consider themselves Southerners – with 61 percent of those voters saying they plan to vote for Kaine, and 29 percent saying they will vote for Allen. Allen leads among the 66 percent of voters who say they do consider themselves Southerners – by a 47 percent-to-41 percent margin.
Both candidates are close to break-even in terms of favorability ratings with voters. Kaine is viewed positively by 40 percent of those surveyed and negatively by 41 percent. Allen gets a positive rating from 38 percent of voters and a negative rating from 39 percent.
More details on the poll: www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2011/12/kaine-leads-allen-by-5.html.
Poll: Obama holding steady in Virginia
The conventional wisdom is that how Barack Obama fares in Virginia in 2012 will determine the fate of his re-election campaign. If that is the case, Obama is looking good for a second term.
A Public Policy Polling survey of Virginia voters released on Wednesday has Obama running ahead of top Republican challengers Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. Obama leads Gingrich by seven points (50 percent to 43 percent) and leads Romney by six (48 percent to 42 percent) in the PPP polling.
The poll was the fourth of the year of Virginia voters done by PPP, and Obama has consistently held leads over his top GOP challengers all year long.
Obama won Virginia in 2008 with a six-point margin of victory over Republican nominee John McCain. His leads over Gingrich, the current Republican presidential nomination frontrunner, and Romney are both in that same ballpark. Read more
Poll: Obama still leads GOP field
President Obama is far from a safe bet for re-election in 2012, but despite his political troubles, the Democrat still leads the Republican field.
A new poll by Public Policy Polling has Obama ahead of the top six GOP contenders by margins ranging from three to 11 points. The toughest matchup continues to be Obama-Mitt Romney, who trails the president by three points (46 percent to 43 percent) in the PPP poll.
The lead for Obama over Romney is only his second in that head-to-head matchup in the past five months. The change has more to do with Romney than Obama – the former Massachusetts governor saw his net favorability drop in the November poll overall and particularly among independent voters (from a 48 percent/34 percent favorable/unfavorable split in October to a 41 percent/40 percent split in November).
The new frontrunner for the Republican nomination, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, has narrowed his general-election gap with Obama significantly in the past month. In October, Gingrich trailed Obama in their head-to-head by 11 points, but the November PPP poll has Gingrich down six points (49 percent to 43 percent).
More on the poll at www.publicpolicypolling.com.
