Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich has a big lead in New Mexico in the Republican presidential primary, a new poll indicates.
The survey from the left-leaning group Public Policy Polling found Gingrich leading with the support of 39 percent of Republican primary voters to Mitt Romney’s 14 percent, Gary Johnson’s 11 percent, 8 percent each for Ron Paul and Rick Perry, 6 percent for Michele Bachmann, 3 percent for Rick Santorum, and 2 percent for Jon Huntsman.
The survey of 300 GOP primary voters was conducted between Saturday and Monday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7 percent.
You can read about the poll here and view the full results here.
More on the survey, from Public Policy Polling:
“Whether they’re sustainable or not Gingrich’s numbers in New Mexico are impressive. He has a 65/25 favorability rating and his support is up more than six fold from when we polled the state in late June and found him at just 6%. He is particularly dominant with the Tea Party vote, getting 55% with that group while no one else is even in double digits. But he’s doing very well with non-Tea Party Republicans as well, holding a 30-19 advantage over Romney with that group.”
But there’s this:
“And yet this poll provides hope for Romney should Gingrich eventually – some might argue inevitably – collapse. He’s the second choice of 23% of Gingrich voters compared to 16% for Perry and 11% for Bachmann with no one else in double digits. This is what we’re finding on poll after poll – Romney is in a clear second place and he’s also the second choice of Gingrich voters, so should Newt fall apart, Mitt goes back to being the front runner – and at the one time where it really matters.”
New Mexico’s GOP presidential contest isn’t historically held until June, and there’s a good chance the primary race will be over long before that.