Federal judge says state ballot-access law likely unconstitutional
A Richmond federal judge wrote today that the Virginia law requiring that persons who circulate petitions for primary candidates be state residents is likely to be held unconstitutional. The law was challenged by Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry and three other candidates who were excluded from the Virginia Republican primary ballot when they did not collect the requisite number of signatures from voters.
The ACLU of Virginia filed a brief in court in support of Perry, arguing that the state violated his First Amendment rights when it prohibited him using from out-of-state petition circulators to gather the signatures required for ballot access. Continue reading “Federal judge says state ballot-access law likely unconstitutional” »
Poll: Romney appears headed to big win in NH
Mitt Romney is primed to complete the political perfecta of winning both the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, according to the final two-day Suffolk University/7News tracking poll of likely voters in New Hampshire.
Romney (37 percent) led Ron Paul (18 percent), Jon Huntsman (16 percent), Rick Santorum (11 percent), and Newt Gingrich (9 percent), while Rick Perry and Buddy Roemer each had 1 percent, with 7 percent undecided.
“Mitt Romney may beat his closest competitor by a two- to-one margin,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston. “With two solid debate performances, Romney weathered the storm earlier this week, while no opponent made a serious run at him.” Continue reading “Poll: Romney appears headed to big win in NH” »
Suffolk: Romney holds big lead in New Hampshire
A win in Iowa and an endorsement from 2008 Republican nominee John McCain did not provide a bounce for Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, according to the latest Suffolk University/7News two-day tracking poll. Romney dropped 2 percentage points, though he still holds a commanding lead with 41 percent of likely voters in the Jan. 10 Republican presidential primary.
It is the first time in four daily tracking polls that Romney has dropped below 43 percent.
Romney is followed by Ron Paul (18 percent), who jumped 4 percentage points, and Rick Santorum (8 percent), who is up 2 percentage points and has shown an increase for three straight days. Continue reading “Suffolk: Romney holds big lead in New Hampshire” »
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. Continue reading “PPP: Iowa headed to photo finish” »
Bolling takes swipe at Cuccinelli over primary
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has reversed his position on an earlier public call for immediate action that would allow candidates who failed to qualify for the March Republican presidential primary a spot on the ballot.
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling took a swipe at his rival for the 2013 GOP gubernatorial nomination in the aftermath, encouraging Cuccinelli to “avoid making public statements that criticize our state election laws while his office is defending the State Board of Elections.”
“I am concerned that such public comments could be used against the Commonwealth in our effort to defend these lawsuits, and I am confident that the attorney general would not want to do anything that could jeopardize his office’s ability to win this case,” Bolling said in a statement. Continue reading “Bolling takes swipe at Cuccinelli over primary” »
Cuccinelli amends stance on ballot access
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has reversed course on his call for immediate corrective action regarding ballot access for the March Republican Party presidential primary.
“After working through different scenarios with Republican and Democratic leaders to attempt to make changes in time for the 2012 presidential election, my concern grows that we cannot find a way to make such changes fair to the Romney and Paul campaigns that qualified even with Virginia’s burdensome system,” Cuccinelli said in a statement Sunday night. Continue reading “Cuccinelli amends stance on ballot access” »
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: Another new frontrunner in GOP race?
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has taken the lead in the Republican Pary presidential race a new national poll.
Gingrich is at 28 percent in a poll released today by Public Policy Polling. Herman Cain, the frontrunner for the GOP nomination in several recent polls, was second in today’s PPP release at 25 percent. Mitt Romney stood at third with 18 percent.
Nobody in the rest of the field is in double digits – with Rick Perry at 6 percent, Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul at 5 percent, and Jon Huntsman at 3 percent.
The trend in the PPP numbers has Gingrich up 13 points over the October PPP poll, with Cain down five points and Romney down four points.
Cain has been wounded somewhat by lingering questions over allegations of sexual harassment leveled by former employees at the National Restaurant Association, while Gingrich has seen an upswing in his favorability from June numbers that had him at a -13 net favorability rating (36 percent of voters expressing a favorable view, 49 percent expressing an unfavorable view) to a +45 net favorability (68 percent favorable, 23 percent unfavorable).
Poll: Obama/Romney a tossup
The latest Public Policy Polling survey of American voters has a hypothetical race between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney a dead heat – though Obama still maintains leads over the other top GOP contenders.
The Obama-Romney race stands at a 45 percent-to-45 percent tie in the PPP poll. Obama has lost four points from what had been a 49 percent-to-45 percent lead over Romney in the September PPP poll.
Romney’s strengths, according to the poll, lie in his narrow lead over Obama among independent voters and his strong showing among Republicans – 85 percent of whom say that they would support him in the general election. Herman Cain gets the support of 83 percent of Republicans in a hypothetical head-to-head with Obama, but none of the other top GOP candidates gets out of the 70s among Republican voters.
Cain actually leads among Republicans for the GOP presidential nomination, but trails Obama in a head-to-head by a 48 percent-to-42 percent margin. Rick Perry trails Obama 49 percent to 40 percent, and registered an alarming net-negative favorability rating, with 23 percent of voters saying they have a favorable opinion of him and 57 percent saying they have a negative opinion.
PPP: Perry has narrow lead over Obama in home state
Rick Perry can claim one early lead over Barack Obama in the polls – in his home state of Texas, though Perry’s lead there is much narrower than he’d like to admit.
Perry leads Obama among Texas voters by a 51 percent-to-44 percent margin, according to a poll released today by Public Policy Polling.
That’s actually an improvement over a June PPP poll that had Obama with a slim 47 percent-to-45 percent lead over Perry.
The updated poll still has Perry with a negative approval rating in Texas, with 45 percent of Texas voters approving of the job that he’s doing and 48 percent not approving.
Perry’s seven-point lead is about half the margin that Republican candidate John McCain won the state by in the 2008 presidential election.
Poll: Obama doubles lead over Perry … is voter concern over Social Security the reason why?
A new Public Policy Polling survey of voters has Barack Obama nearly doubling his lead over Texas Gov. Rick Perry as swing voters begin to express concerns about Perry’s comments on Social Security being a “Ponzi scheme.”
Obama led Perry in the polling by a 52 percent-to-41 percent margin in the recent PPP poll. Three weeks ago, PPP had Obama ahead of Perry by six points, 49 percent to 43 percent.
Inside the numbers, Perry is getting hammered by voters on his controversial views on Social Security. Just 20 percent of voters agree with his view of Social Security being a Ponzi scheme, with 70 percent disagreeing with the statement.
Voters split even more significantly on a related question in the polling on whether the federal government should end Social Security – 82 percent opposed and only 10 percent in favor.
Another interesting tidbit in the numbers: Democrats have moved more solidly in favor of Obama since Perry attained frontrunner status in the GOP field. Three weeks ago, Obama led among Democrats by an 81 percent-to-13 percent margin. This week’s poll has Obama ahead among the base by an 89 percent-to-9 percent tally.
Obama’s lead over Mitt Romney is much narrower in this week’s PPP poll – 49 percent to 45 percent.
Chris Graham: Cain’s turn?
Posted by afp on October 25, 2011 · 2 Comments
Cain holds leads across the country in polls conducted by Public Policy Polling – in eight states of the nine that PPP has surveyed in the past two weeks.
And even in the one state that Cain trails in, Nevada, it’s only by one point, and he’s gained 21 points in Nevada since July there.
So that would be good news if you’re a Cain fan. The bad news for Cain and his fans – there aren’t a lot of what you’d call committed Cain supporters. The former pizza CEO lags behind Romney in voters who say they will definitely vote for him.
More bad news for those who want to see Mr. 9-9-9 get the Republican nomination – Cain is sorely lacking in terms of campaign organization. The Cain campaign, such as it is, seems as surprised as the rest of us at his recent surge in the polls, to the point that it’s now being forced to scramble to get an infrastructure in place to take advantage.
And then there’s the bad news for Rick Perry fans – the Texas governor’s fall from frontrunner to also-ran seems complete at this point. He’s at 6 percent – 6 percent! – in Nevada, where 59 percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of him, and his numbers in other states are comparably bad.
Meanwhile, Bachmann (3 percent in Nevada, 5 percent in Wisconsin) is now officially an afterthought.
You ask me, Romney is the one sitting pretty. I didn’t use the setting the pace analogy in my lead here for nothing. The former Massachusetts governor seems content to let others get their moment or two in the glare of the lead of the pack as he continues to raise money and build campaign bases in the key battleground states.
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