Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Kim Geiger: Poll: Santorum has double-digit lead over Romney in Ohio

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-poll-santorum-has-doubledigit-lead-over-romney-in-ohio-20120228,0,369298.story

This post has been corrected, as indicated below.

February 28, 2012, 10:12 a.m.

With just a week to go until Super Tuesday, Rick Santorum leads Mitt Romney by 11 percentage points in a new Ohio poll of Republican primary voters, though nearly half say they could change their minds.

The poll by the University of Cincinnati shows Santorum leading the pack of GOP contenders with 37% support, followed by Mitt Romney with 26%, Newt Gingrich with 16% and Ron Paul with 11%.

Although 53% said they will “definitely vote” for their current preferred candidate, 47% of those polled said they could switch between now and Tuesday’s vote.

That may not necessarily be good news for Romney. Santorum had the highest portion of voters who said they are committed to vote for him. Forty-six percent of respondents who preferred Santorum also said they would “definitely” vote for him, compared with 24% for Romney.

As has been the case in other states, Santorum fares especially well with voters who support the"tea party" movement and voters who consider themselves born-again or evangelical Christians.

[For the record, Feb. 28: An earlier version of this post said 25% of Republican primary voters backed Mitt Romney. Twenty-six percent back Romney.]

kim.geiger@latimes.com

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