A new poll finds that Gov. Bill Richardson isn’t gaining any ground in Florida, the X-factor in the Democratic presidential primary.
The newest Rasmussen Reports poll has Hillary Clinton at 46 percent, Barack Obama at 15 percent and John Edwards at 13 percent in that state. Richardson and the four other candidates in the race split 4 percent in the poll, and 21 percent were undecided.
Florida moved up its primary earlier this year to Jan. 29 – the same day as South Carolina – in opposition to the wishes of the Democratic National Committee. It’s unclear whether any candidates might choose to skip the primary to honor the wishes of the national party, but Richardson has said he will participate there.
The poll isn’t encouraging in any way for the governor’s campaign, however. Clinton had a favorability rating of 73 percent, while Obama’s was 62 percent and Edwards’ was 60 percent. Even Joe Biden’s 35 percent was higher than Richardson’s 32 percent. Both were viewed unfavorably by 39 percent in the poll.
The survey of 457 likely Democratic primary voters, conducted July 18 and 19, has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.
Richardson doesn’t plan any trips to Florida in the next two weeks. He’s putting all his effort into Iowa and New Hampshire.
He’s in Iowa today, and will be in New Hampshire from Thursday to Saturday. He’ll spend Saturday evening and Sunday fundraising in New York and Monday fundraising in New Mexico. He has no public events scheduled for Tuesday.
A week from today, he’ll spend the day fundraising in New Mexico before spending Aug. 2 and 3 in Iowa. He’ll attend a candidate debate in Illinois on Aug. 4 but will return to Iowa that evening, and will be there through Aug. 6.
A new poll finds that Gov. Bill Richardson isn’t gaining any ground in