With a month to go until Iowans select a candidate for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has extended his lead in the state, while Texas Rep. Ron Paul has entered second place and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has dropped to third.
A new poll from the Des Moines Register finds 25% of likely Republican voters in Iowa backing Gingrich, while 18% support Paul and 16% say they’d go for Romney.
Other candidates for the nomination – including Herman Cain, who announced Saturday he was suspending his presidential campaign – polled in the single digits.
Gingrich’s rise in Iowa is a marked change from a month ago, when he was polling in fourth place in the Hawkeye State. A CNN/ORC International Poll taken October 20-25 found only 10% of registered Republicans in Iowa backing Gingrich, while Romney held the lead with 24%. Ron Paul was in third place in October, with 12%.
Romney, who won the support of the Sioux City Journal earlier Saturday, has recently amped up his effort in Iowa, sending direct-mail fliers to voters and buying television advertising space.
Gingrich has a smaller operation in the state, only opening his first campaign office there Wednesday.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, said Thursday that Gingrich would need to step up his campaign in the state if he planned on winning the first-in-the-nation caucuses.
“He may be ahead in the polls, but can he deliver?” Branstad asked. “That’s the question I have.”
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who have campaigned heavily in Iowa, came in at 6% and 8%, respectively. Bachmann won the intensely watched Ames Straw Poll in August, but has seen her support declining since then.
Santorum recently completed an arduous campaign task – visiting all 99 counties in Iowa.
Iowa holds the nation’s first presidential nominating contest on January 3.
The Des Moines Register poll was taken by phone from Nov. 27-30 from 401 likely Republican caucus-goers. The sampling error was 4.9 percentage points.
(Source: CNN)
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7 Responses
Romney is a classic “country club” Republican. He favors “corporate welfare” whether in the form of bailing out banks whose incompetence undermined the economy, or subsidies (direct or through tax preferences) to those businesses who support his policy goals (and contribute to his campaign). So how is that any different than Obama?
He’s usually pro-life except when running in blue states. He’s skeptical about global warming except when talking to enviornmentalists. He is sometimes pro-immigration and sometimes pro-immigration (a common problem for conservatives who belong to religious movements that are sympathetic to the “illegal” Hispanic immigrants).
G-d help us if Ron Paul scores the nomination.
1. You can ask how he is different than Obama but the truth is and you seem to be smart enough to see it, ANYONE is better than Obama. The number one goal is BEAT OBAMA!!!
I say since palins backing off with her big name recognition
And Cains pain with his inroads of his economic plans
I think incumbent president obamas chances of being reelected have increased substantially
#2- The best hope at this point is that Romney or Gingrich, both of whom have a solid record of ideological flexibility (they’ll claim they learn from their mistakes) will embrace the massive tax reform proposed by Cain (and claim that only someone with their experience could get it enacted), and will embrace the issues that OWS and Tea Party overlap (opposition to corporate welfare).
Sorry akuperma, but I like underdogs. In 2008, as a liberal, I supported Obama, and in 2012, as a staunch conservative, I am firmly in the Santorum camp.
I pray for a Santorum presidency.
I’ll be okay with a Gingrich or Perry presidency.
I’ll grudgingly accept a Romney or Bachmann presidency.
I fear a Paul or Huntsman presidency.
Neither Romney nor Gingrich is perfect, by any means. But they are MILES ahead of Obama. They may have flip-flopped, or some other nothing thing, but he is DESTROYING the country, and that means that any of their faults pale greatly by comparison! We’ve GOT to get rid of this Jerk!