Mitt Romney's shown strength among Republican primary voters in the West in most of our recent polling throughout the region and Colorado's no exception. He leads the GOP field there with 19% to 16% for Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, 12% for Newt Gingrich, 9% for Ron Paul, 7% for Tim Pawlenty, 4% for John Thune, and 3% for Mitch Daniels. Romney's lead in Colorado adds to first place finishes we've found for him in Arizona, California, and Nevada since the beginning of the year. Only in New Mexico have we found Romney out of first place in a western state.
Romney manages leads, albeit narrow ones, with both conservative and moderate voters in Colorado. Among conservatives he gets 18% with Palin right behind at 17%, Huckabee at 15%, Gingrich at 13%, and Paul with a rare performance hitting double digits at 10%. With moderates Romney has 22% to Huckabee's 20%, and 10% for Palin and Gingrich.
In some states where Romney leads he doesn't have the highest favorability of the Republican candidates but is first anyway because he's seen as more Presidential than some of the other folks who are better liked. But that's not the case in Colorado- he's first for the nomination choice and first in popularity. 60% of primary voters have a favorable opinion of him with Palin and Huckabee at 59% and Gingrich at 54% coming in further behind.
Full results here
Come on Tom, Romney's leads just like Palin's leads and Huckabee's leads are pretty tenuous even in Western states with heavily Mormon electorates.
ReplyDeleteYou had him at 52% in Colorado a year ago. He won 60% of the vote in 2008 in Colorado.
So at 19%, he's bled well over half of his support from the first colorado poll and from his performance in 2008.
A "trend" comparison would be interesting for the top 3 or 4 candidates. For instance, from your November poll in CO...Romney down 3, Palin down 1 and Huck up 2.
ReplyDeleteHard to believe how close that is. Usually the high Mormon population helps Romney significantly in Colorado, Nevada, and of course, Utah.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Huckabee's claim that abortion is the biggest issue facing America (something that less than 1% of Americans with him on) will play if he wins the nomination.
ReplyDeleteI know Huckabee does (comparatively) well against Obama in the general election but I really think that's because the general public doesn't know that much about him yet. As they get to know what a social conservative loon he is, he'll be done.