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. Read more
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.” Read more
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. Read more
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
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. Read more
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. 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.
