Rick Santorum has moved ahead of Mitt Romney in two new polls of Michigan voters released Monday that cast doubts on Romney’s perceived advantage as a “native son” of the Great Lakes State.
The Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey showed Santorum’s support at 39 percent in Michigan ahead of its Republican primary on Feb. 28. Romney was well behind with 24 percent, while Texas Rep. Ron Paul received 12 percent and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich took 11 percent.
In a separate poll by American Research Group (ARG), Santorum led with 33 percent, followed by Romney with 27 percent, Gingrich with 21 percent, and Paul with 12 percent.
According to PPP, Santorum had commanding leads among Tea Party and Evangelical voters in the state, with 53 percent and 48 percent respectively. He polled at 51 percent among voters identifying as “very conservative.”
The ARG poll also showed Santorum leading among Tea Party supporters, with 37 percent of their vote, although Gingrich received more support in that survey — following in second place with 29 percent. Romney was third among Tea Party supporters with 17 percent, according to ARG, while Paul received 11 percent.
Romney was perceived to have a home state advantage in Michigan, where his late father, George Romney, served as governor through most of the 1960s.
But according to the PPP poll, only 26 percent of primary voters consider Romney to be a Michigander.
Also, only 39 percent of the voters have a favorable opinion of George Romney, while 46 percent said they have no opinion about him.
“Rick Santorum has all the momentum in Michigan right now,” said PPP President Dean Debnam in a statement. “But it’s important to note that more than 50 percent of voters say they could change their minds in the next two weeks. There’s a lot of room for this race to shift back toward Romney in the coming days.”
PPP surveyed 404 Republican primary voters between Feb. 10 and Feb. 12. The margin of error for the survey is 4.9 percent.
ARG polled 600 likely Republican primary voters on Feb. 11 and Feb. 12. The margin of error was four percentage points.
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However other polls are suggesting that Santorum is even further behind Obama than Romney is. So unless one of them can find a way to reverse that, Obama can plan on a second term, with a mandate to do much mischief.
Santorum might be a great person ideologically, but this isn’t really the time for someone like like Goldwater or Bryan (great on principles, poor on votes). Being something of a chameleon might be an asset for Romney.