Poll finds Santorum surging in Gingrich's home state Georgia

The HIll.com ^ | 02/12/12 | Meghashyam Mali

[writer33]

A new poll shows GOP hopeful Rick Santorum surging in rival Newt Gingrich's home state of Georgia, threatening the former House speaker’s strategy of focusing on southern states to win the nomination.

A new Landmark Communications/Rosetta Stone poll of Georgia GOP voters finds Gingrich ahead in the state with 35 percent support, but followed by a rising Santorum with 26 percent.

Mitt Romney, who won Maine's Saturday caucuses and is the leader in delegates in the Republican race is in third place with 16 percent, followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 5 percent support.

[vbmoneyspender]

Shouldn't the headline be: Romney support collapsing in George.

It's a rhetorical question, but why do facts that hurt Romney always get spun by the media as damaging some other candidate.

[vbmoneyspender]

George = Georgia

[TLI]

“”Split the vote? Rick is winning if you haven’t noticed. Just check the delegate count and states won for confirmation.””

TOTAL DELEGATES
Mitt Romney
Pledged*: 104
Unpledged RNC*: 20
Total: 124

Newt Gingrich
Pledged*: 34
Unpledged RNC*: 4
Total: 38

Rick Santorum
Pledged*: 36
Unpledged RNC*: 1
Total: 37

Ron Paul
Pledged*: 27
Unpledged RNC*: 0
Total: 27

Michele Bachmann
Pledged*: 0
Unpledged RNC*: 0
Total: 0

Rick Perry
Pledged*: 0
Unpledged RNC*: 0
Total: 0

Jon Huntsman
Pledged*: 0
Unpledged RNC*: 0
Total: 0

Delegates Needed to Win: 1,144

http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/primaries/scorecard/statebystate/r

[TomGuy]

Per another thread, Santorum is leading in TN, too.

That ‘southern strategy’ may not be such a viable strategy after all.

If Santorum picks up a couple more states soon, he might just have enough Big Mo going to become the best challenger against Romney.

[Happy Rain]

Same here with Newt—I would gladly vote for him in the general, it's just that I will be gladly voting for Santorum instead.

[Happy Rain]

Not too fond of Christian Conservatives are you?

That's OK, we have you in our prayers.

Newt shot his bolt and came up short, Santorum is now the Not Romney who will save America.

Of course this is all moot because you are disagreeing with ME—which means all by itself that you are wrong and if you persist, stupid;)

[katiedidit1]

Mason Dixon poll has Newt soaring! Newt Gingrich has maintained a double-digit lead over his Republican rivals in Georgia with less than a month to go before the state’s presidential primary, according to a poll released Saturday.

The poll showed the former House speaker leading Mitt Romney 43 percent to 29 percent among likely voters in Georgia, the state Gingrich represented in Congress for two decades.

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum had 12 percent while Texas congressman Ron Paul trailed with 6 percent. The polling was conducted Monday through Wednesday, meaning many Georgia respondents were questioned before Santorum won contests in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado that have given his campaign a renewed sense of momentum.

Georgia is one of 10 states that will decide their Republican primaries on March 6. It’s also the Super Tuesday state with the most delegates up for grabs, with a total of 76.

The Georgia poll showed Gingrich leading among both men and women as well as with voters who identified themselves as evangelical Christians and tea party supporters. Gingrich also led Romney by healthy margins in all regions of the state except for metro Atlanta, where they were in statistical tie with Gingrich polling at 38 percent and Romney at 34 percent.

The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, D.C., and paid for by 13 daily newspapers with readership across Georgia.

Pollsters conducted telephone interviews with 625 registered Georgia voters who said they were likely to vote in the GOP primary. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

Read more: Cherokee Tribune - Ga poll Newt has wide lead over Romney

[Downinthedixie]

I remember Newt. My family remembers Newt. We don’t exactly look back wistfully at the Gingrich Congress.

That being said, he is quite a formidable politician.

[Lazlo in PA]

I am going by these numbers.

http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/delegates

Milt 105

Rick 71

Newt 29

RuPaul 18

[deport]

Georgia Republican Presidential Primary

March 6 (Proportional Primary) 76 Delegates

Polling Data

Poll	Date	Sample	Gingrich	Romney	Santorum	Paul	Spread
RCP Average	2/1 - 2/9	--	40.0	24.0	17.5	6.5	Gingrich +16.0
Landmark/Rosetta Stone	2/9 - 2/9	1475 LV	35	16	26	5	Gingrich +9
SurveyUSA	2/1 - 2/2	459 LV	45	32	9	8	Gingrich +13

[Marguerite]

That’s absolutely FALSE.

After the primaries and caucuses hold in January and February:

Newt Gingrich - 29 pledged delegates

Ron Paul - 8 pledged delegates

Rick Santorum - 3 pledged delegates

Mitt Romney - 73 pledged delegates

(By awarding all 50 delegates to Romney, Florida broke the RNC delegate allocation rules. If these delegates are important, a motion can be made from the floor of the National Convention to have these delegates awarded proportionally)

Unpledged delegates Caucus Selected - 116

Unpledged delegates Party Leaders - 12

Unpledged delegates Released - 2

Notes:

The listed pledged delegates for each candidate are the only the delegates that are actually bound to those candidates.

Unpledged caucus selected delegates are any delegates that are selected at county, regional, or state conventions as an extension of the caucus process without regard for non-binding presidential straw polls often also conducted at caucuses.

Unpledged party selected delegates are delegates selected through the state party that are not a part of the caucus or primary process. For example Illinois and Indiana select unpledged delegates at their state conventions in addition to those selected during their primaries.

Unpledged party leaders are state party officials who are delegates by virtue of their position.

Unpledged released delegates are those delegates won by a candidate who has withdrawn from the race and therefore have become unpledged delegates, such as the 2 delegates won by John Huntsman in New Hampshire.

These are unpledged delegates: Colorado - 36, Minnesota - 40, Missouri - 0, Maine - 24, Iowa - 28

At the Convention, they are not bound to the candidates, and may vote as they please.

[Cindy of Nashville]

Rick Santorum is an Eddie Haskel.

[Lazlo in PA]

Rick Santorum - 3 pledged delegates

And you think the non pledged delegates for Rick are not going to support him? Not likely. Also you sour grapes about the FL delegate split is funny. I don't remember Newt whining about winner takes all prior to the FL election.

[Marguerite]

Florida broke the rules. Set an example GOP... ENFORCE THE RULES!

Rule No. 15: Election, Selection, Allocation, or Binding of Delegates and Alternate Delegates

(1) No primary, caucus, or convention to elect, select, allocate, or bind delegates to the national convention shall occur prior to the first Tuesday in March in the year in which a national convention is held.

Except Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada may begin their processes at any time on or after February 1 in the year in which a national convention is held and shall not be subject to the provisions of paragraph (2) of this rule.

(2) Any presidential primary, caucus, convention, or other meeting held for the purpose of selecting delegates to the national convention which occurs prior to the first day of April in the year in which the national convention is held, shall provide for the allocation of delegates on a proportional basis.

[livius]

Worse, he’s a Uriah Heep. As I posted earlier, I started off by thinking he was a mere Jimmy Carter, complete with smarmy manner and dorky blue sweater, but then I realized that there’s a sort of vicious, whining edge there that has more in common with Uriah Heep (just an ‘umble man...invoking the name of the Lord while busy scheming and stuffed to the gills with personal ambition).

That said, aside from my personal aversion to him, he has no ideas, and that is what this contest has got to be fought on. Unfortunately, the press and the supporters of the candidates do nothing but post these wierd lightning polls (Romney did a lot of that in FL) to depress turnout by making people think it’s a done deal...and nobody ever reports the candidate’s program or even appears to care about it.

[Apollo5600]

I challenged another Santorumbot on this earlier and never got a response.

If Saint Rick is so great, how about you explain how his PLATFORM is superior to Newt’s? Can you explain why Saint Rick doesn’t support a flat tax? Can you explain why he bashed the fair tax? Can you explain why Saint Rick doesn’t want to seriously reform the tax system? Can you explain why he does not favor a FAIR flat tax rate for ALL industries, as opposed to simply lowering taxes for certain FAVORED industries? Can you explain why he does not favor privatization of Social Security, even though he supported it during the Bush years?

And don’t just spam me about something negative with Newt, essentially calling him a liar. NO BABY PICTURES EITHER.

The fact of the matter is, this stuff about being the only “Christian conservative” is the last fatal gasp. And FYI, I’m not a Catholic. I am a Christian Protestant. You’ll have to find something else to appeal to me.

[Mangia E Statti Zitto]

That sounds just like Santorum saying he NEVER supported TARP. Lucky for him, we’ll never know, since he wasn’t around to vote on it...

[Happy Rain]

Rick Santorum opposed TARP—he did not follow the GOP bail-out crowd. Unlike “others” he opposed the unconstitutional socialized health care individual mandate as far back as 1994. He voted against Cap and Trade and FOR drilling in ANWR. His conservative bona fides are well established in his record on border and national security and his outstanding history of support for our military. Rick did not use Leftist rhetoric criticizing Romney on his days at Bain and he did not snuggle and blush on a love seat with Princess Pelosi advancing the hoax of man made global warming.

There I didn't bash anybody just pointed out Rick's strong points and though his platform and Newt's are practically identical Santorum is the most consistent conservative and his solid long held and adhered to Christian values not only attract the LARGE social conservative vote but explode the heads of Godless RINOs and Leftists everywhere.

I like Newt better than Mitt but I voted for the best in Rick and look forward to voting for him again in November.

[Happy Rain]

If he supported TARP we would ALL know about it.

But then one should, out of the four, give the least mendacious the benefit of the doubt.

[Apollo5600]

LOL, so Rick’s Platform is his ability to oppose stuff?

Pretty easy to oppose TARP when Saint Rick wasn’t even in office to vote for or against it.

I asked you some VERY SPECIFIC QUESTIONS. But it seems Rick’s platform really does revolve around bashing the other candidates.

I think Saint Rick would do better to campaign for canonization with the Church. He can then take up residence in heaven and supervisors the angels, and maybe he can substitute for Minos at the gates of hell whenever that old devil is feeling under the weather.