Posted on 03/08/2012 7:54:01 AM PST by pgkdan
A new poll released on the eve of Rick Santorum’s first campaign visit to Alabama shows the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania leading in the state Republican Party presidential primary.
The statewide poll conducted by Alabama State University’s Center for Leadership and Public Policy showed 22.7 percent of likely Republican voters supported Santorum, who is scheduled to make campaign appearances Thursday in Huntsville and Mobile.
Former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney trailed Santorum with 18.7 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House from neighboring Georgia, with 13.8 percent.
The telephone poll of 470 likely GOP voters showed 29.8 remained undecided and 15 percent saying they intended to support other candidates. The poll did not ask voters whether they supported Ron Paul, the Texas congressman seeking the GOP nomination.
The poll was conducted March 1, prior to the Super Tuesday vote that helped establish Romney and Santorum as leaders in the race for the nomination, with Romney holding a total of 415 delegates and Santorum with 176.
Gingrich, with 105 delegates, canceled campaign plans in Kansas this week to focus on voters in Alabama and Mississippi, which share a primary election day Tuesday.
But the poll results indicate that support for Gingrich is waning in Alabama, according to ASU political science professor Thomas Vocino.
“The numbers are just not in his favor, and the trend is working against him,” Vocino said. “I can’t foresee a situation where he can rebound and win in Alabama.”
Vocino said Gingrich’s support has fallen steeply since ASU began tracking the race five weeks ago. Gingrich led the field in Alabama with 26.9 percent in the initial round of polling on Feb. 2. His support slipped to 18.9 percent by Feb. 23, when results showed him with a slim lead over Santorum at 18.3 percent.
Santorum’s steady increase over the same time period came almost completely at Gingrich’s expense, Vocino said. Romney, by comparison, has held flat at around 16-18 percent, according to Vocino.
The results indicate that Gingrich is unlikely to reach the 20 percent threshold that would allow him to win delegates in any of the state’s seven congressional districts.
“I think it is very problematic for Gingrich to get any” delegates, Vocino said
We'll see soon enough. There's other polling ion the state that shows Romney in the lead and Rick insecond and Newt trailing closely enough to call it a tie in second.
I think Ricky is working for Mitt anyway. He is pure establishment GOP. His mission is to split the conservative vote, eliminate Newt, and block for Romney. Then we will be treated to a big reunion with a Mitt/Ricky ticket. Ricky supported Mitt last time, and even told us he’s a ‘team player’ for the gop.
Ricky is the 2012 version of Huckabee. This is probably why Sara lined up against Ricky.
If not Canada, then Guam. Newt’s really, really big in Guam. Just you wait. Newt’ll show ‘em.
Pulling hard for Santorum here in Louisiana!
And Romney would be in last place if the anti-Romney vote weren’t split.
Yeah, let’s forget the issues of liberty and freedom and economics, and all subvert it to gay marriage and contraception and the right to life.
Because as we know, those unborn babies will do a great job of fighting for themselves after all of us adults have all our money, time and freedom stripped from us because of some esoteric idea that there is a philosophical tie between morality and freedom. Yes, the tie is there, but if we are retarded in how we apply that tie, we lose, lose, lose.
But you’ll feel good about our moral superiority while in servitude I guess. As for me, i’ll help with the unborn as soon as the government gets out of my way and lets me take care of my ALREADY BORN children!!!!!1
Your opinion, is obviously tainted, since you decided to post this BS in the first place. Any half hearted search, would have revealed what I just posted above. And you know it.
RS may be winning Alabama, I don’t know. But a poll of only 470 is bogus.
Exactly what I was thinking. Santorum = Huckabee 2
Santorum was a good Senator, and not a back-bencher. So tired of all the attacks this year. He’s not my choice, but that doesn’t mean we have to diminish his contributions. Santorum lost big in 2006 in large part because he held strong on the issues we believed in....supporting the administration on Iraq policy over the Code Pink attacks, among others. He also got beat in a year where the party got destroyed, and we lost a lot of great congress members and Senators.
Get your facts straight. Santorum was Senate whip in 2005 and 2006 and served as Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. That's NOT a back bencher Sparky.
The idea that some of these polls are more or less being used to sway opinion isn’t foreign to me. Like you say though, the posting of them here isn’t going to move more than a thimble full of dirt before the election, as opposed to moving a mountain.
Reporting this March 1st poll out now, is almost worthless. It is strange to me that they would even bother.
These races get quite fluid leading up to the election, and reporting out seven days after a poll was taken, and about five before the election seems pointless.
There was never a single poll EVER showing Newt behind AT ALL in Georgia.
RCP All Georgia Polling
From Daniel Henninger’s analysis of why Santorum did well in Ohio:
I went to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Monday to find out. Out of 1,189,530 votes cast the next day in bellwether Ohio, Mr. Santorum lost to Mitt Romney by only 10,288, at last count. He’s doing something right, and what one learned in Cuyahoga Falls, an Akron suburb, is that it doesn’t have much to do with the famous Santorum controversies over social issues. It’s about ObamaCare. And it’s about the idea of freedom.
Henninger’s actually talked to people instead of repeating MSM tripe, as you do. Santorum’s not only about social issues. I’m tired of FRingrichers repeating MSM crap here.
No.
I’m in Memphis, so I have a feel for North Mississippi. Those numbers have a bit of a correct feel to them, at least as far as who is in which position. However, I think that Newt is actually down in the 18% range and most of the undecideds will not vote or split for Santorum/Romney. Romney is winning among those who would vote for the Devil over Obama because he is perceived as the front runner.
There. Fixed it.
Looking at the numbers more, I am less inclined to believe it then at first. It’s a bit old as well.
To quote Sarah Palin to you Santorum fanatics, “OH, BOO-HOO! Quit whining!”
Don’t worry. When it becomes obvious, even to you, that Rick Santorum is teh best hope for our party and our country you can join the team.
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