Clinton, Romney ahead in Michigan

...Among those saying they'll vote in the Republican primary, Michigan native Mitt Romney leads at 25 percent, followed by ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani at 23 percent. Former Tennessee senator and television star Fred Thompson, who will formally enter the GOP race next week, is at 16 percent, with Arizona Sen. John McCain, winner of Michigan's 2000 primary, at 15 percent.

... On Thursday, the Legislature approved a joint Jan. 15 primary for the state, a measure Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to sign. That would put Michigan among the earliest-voting states in the nominating race, something Michigan politicians have sought for more than two decades.

Among the Democrats, Clinton, who led Illinois Sen. Barack Obama 45-26 in the previous poll, is at 40 percent today; Obama is at 21. .... EPIC-MRA's Ed Sarpolus said the poll holds some encouragement for McCain and Edwards, two candidates with high hopes in Michigan.

The poll shows McCain still within striking distance in a state where he has many activist supporters and a successful history.

"People here still love him," Sarpolus said of McCain. At the same time, he said, Romney has built a powerful organization in the state, and has hopes of doing well in Michigan to prove he could challenge Democrats here in the general election.

Sarpolus said Romney and Obama both are benefiting from crossover voters: independents and members of one party who say they plan to vote in the other's primary.

Obama, for example, gets support from nearly half the independents who say they will vote in the Democratic contest. Romney likewise gets almost half the potential independent voters in the GOP primary.

Sarpolus said about 14 percent of the GOP vote and 15 percent in the Democratic race could be crossover voters.

According to Chuck Todd, the two state parties in Michigan "have agreed to move the state's primary -- legislatively -- to Jan. 15. This is a compromise date out of respect for Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, who really wanted to move the primary to Jan. 8. Others wanted the primary on Jan. 22 as a way to, essentially, play ball with the other early states."
"Bottom line: Michigan holding its primary on Jan. 15 means New Hampshire's window to hold a primary has been moved up further to Jan. 8. And then there's Iowa, who now could face a decision to let New Hampshire leap frog it or somehow go 2-3 days before New Hampshire (say, on Sat. Jan. 5) or in December -- something the governor of Iowa said he didn't want to do."

This seems to be good news for Mitt.

Speaking of good news, Mitt's son did a great recap on his blog of all the positive happenings from the campaign trail. Mitt fans will appreciate it (the rest of you should skip it!).

A Great Month for the Romney Campaign

For a historically slow month politically, August was pretty good to the Romney campaign. And we're building for an even more successful September. I was recently chatting with a blogger from the Politico and we talked about each of the milestones that my Dad the candidate has hit since entering the race in January. It's remarkable really, and we have met or exceeded each goal we have set along the way.

When he entered, few thought he had a good chance at winning. Then he raised $6.5M in one day in January. He won the CPAC straw poll in DC in February. In March, we won the first quarter "money primary" by raising $21M.

In April, we won 10 and came in 2nd in 6 of the 17 total county straw polls in South Carolina.

In May, the Gov clearly won the first GOP debate at the Reagan Library as well as the second debate in South Carolina. He also appeared in 60 Minutes, Jay Leno, and the cover of Time Magazine. And the campaign team signed up 30,000 new supporters in only 24 hours during Sign Up America!

In June, we scored another victory in the NH debate, Rudy and McCain both surrender by stating they won't attend the Ames Straw Poll, and my Dad jumps to first place in the polls in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Oh and we raised another $14M, keeping us in first place in total primary dollars raised on the GOP side.

In July we launched the Mitt Mobile (and had Gretta do a segment on 3 of the 5 brothers), and hosted a huge 600 person fundraiser at Fenway Park and the Boston Garden (America's Calling).

In August, Dad had another fantastic debate performance in Iowa (one of his strongest, I think), Josh visited his 99th county in Iowa, and then Dad went on to win the Ames Iowa Straw Poll, as well as many other straw polls around the country (e.g. state fairs in Iowa, Illinois, and other states).

Whether it's the new -- creative fundraising methods and Internet contests -- or the old -- phone banks and bus captains -- my Dad and his campaign have shown how the innovation, hard work, and problem solving skills he is famous for apply in a presidential campaign.

He has hosted over 70 Ask Mitt Anything Town Halls totally open to the press and the public, made hundreds and hundreds of campaign stops all across the country, and put hundreds of speech clips up for viewing on Mitt TV.

He's added to an impressive list of endorsers. He's unveiled detailed policy plans on dozens of topics including stopping a nuclear Iran, health care, immigration reform, protecting our children from pornography, tax reform, and other policies designed to keep America's families, military, and economy strong.

As a result, I think he has become an even stronger campaigner and speaker than he was already. Who knows what the future holds, but I'm confident that the next month will be just as good and probably better than the last one.

Posted at 2007-08-31 02:26:11 by Tagg Romney
http://fivebrothers.mittromney.com/blog/comments/233

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