Maybe “wait until Florida” will work this time?
Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney was knocked from his frontrunner status in the GOP presidential primary by Texas Gov. Rick Perry a few weeks ago, but he’s starting to rebound. A recent Winthrop University poll found Romney to be moving back within striking distance in South Carolina, and a new poll out Wednesday from polling firm War Room Logistics shows that the two contenders are locked in Florida with one caveat: Romney is the only candidate in a statistical dead heat against President Obama in the state.Romney and Perry are tied at 25 percent among Florida Republicans, with the rest of the field far behind in single digits. Within that number there is a battle between hard right conservatives and more moderate members of the party. The hardliners, those who described themselves as “very conservative,” go for Perry by about twelve points. This sends a large number of voters Perry’s way because they make up a large portion (over 41 percent) of the overall sample. But Romney leads with every other group, including by eight points within the “somewhat conservative” subsection, and by large margins among moderates and liberal Republicans, allowing Romney to piece together enough support to tie Perry.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=106900