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Incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown has a narrow lead over Republican challenger Josh Mandel in Rasmussen Reports’ first look at Ohio’s 2012 race for the U.S. Senate. A new telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state shows Brown earning 44% support to Mandel’s 40%. Four percent (4%) like another candidate in the race, and, tellingly, 12% are undecided.

The first Rasmussen Reports survey of the U.S. Senate race in New Mexico shows a tight contest between former Republican Congresswoman Heather Wilson and her two likeliest Democratic challengers. The statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state finds Democratic Congressman Martin Heinrich picking up 45% of the vote against Wilson, who draws 43% support. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate in the race, while seven percent (7%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) If State Auditor Hector Balderas is the Democratic candidate, he and Wilson are tied at 44% each. Three percent (3%) prefer...

A poll taken Feb 1 – 5 shows that by a 58/ 37 margin “Catholics” support a government mandate requiring all employers who provide health care plans for their workers to include abortion and/or birth control coverage at no cost. Nevertheless, in spite of this 21 point edge some high profile “Catholic” Democrats are walking away from Obama on this issue. This begs an important question: Why would these CINO (Catholic In Name Only) abortion supporting Democrats be afraid to stand with Obama ? The PROOF that Catholics DON’T care is right there in black and white! It’s twenty one...

Rick Santorum has pulled slightly ahead of Mitt Romney in Republican primary voters' preference for the presidential nomination, a national CBS News/New York Times Poll shows. Ron Paul is now in third, followed by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. ...... Santorum receives strong backing from conservatives, tea party supporters and white evangelicals. Self-identified conservatives divided their support among the candidates in January, but in this poll they appear to be coalescing solidly behind Santorum. He receives far more support from this group than Romney does, and conservative support for Santorum has increased since last month. ...... Santorum also...

The door has closed on Sarah Palin running for president as a Republican. Even if she changed her mind and threw in her hat, the calendar and delegate count would put the GOP nomination out of reach. She has also said repeatedly she's not interested, and threw passive support to Newt Gingrich. But consider for a moment that Palin was running, how would she do? With so many media and voter variables at play, it's hard to know for sure. But the Election Oracle shows something unique for Palin. She enjoys extremely high regard online – on Wednesday her favorability...

Santorum Now Leads Romney in Michigan February 11th, 2012 | Author: Ben Hart Rick Santorum now leads Mitt Romney in Michigan — the state where Mitt’s dad was governor, according to a tweet by Public Policy Polling. The PPP tweet says: “Santorum topping Romney on the first night of our Michigan poll. This may be the biggest surge yet.”

Riding a wave of momentum from his trio of victories on Tuesday Rick Santorum has opened up a wide lead in PPP's newest national poll. He's at 38% to 23% for Mitt Romney, 17% for Newt Gingrich, and 13% for Ron Paul. Part of the reason for Santorum's surge is his own high level of popularity. 64% of voters see him favorably to only 22% with a negative one. But the other, and maybe more important, reason is that Republicans are significantly souring on both Romney and Gingrich. Romney's favorability is barely above water at 44/43, representing a 23 point...

...the 2012 election is looking more like a replay of 2008 than a do-over. The latest WND/Wenzel Poll shows...one in five GOP voters leaning toward support of Obama in November.... Obama also has made tremendous inroads on enemy territory against each of the four Republicans, winning roughly 20 percent support among conservatives and even those who consider themselves to be very conservative.

Point of Order No. 4,321,458: A recent study released by the Heritage Foundation states that the depedency index under President Obama has grown an astounding 23% during his reign er I mean presidency. In just a mere two years 67 million (yes that's MILLION) people are now relying on federal aid in one form or another. Investors.com explains "In 2010, for the first time ever, average spending on dependence programs per recipient exceeded the country's per-capita disposable income." The Left would have you believe that the reason behind this spike is mainly the crap economy, but WE'RE NOT BUYING IT....

... the poll series has dropped its reporting of partisan identification within their samples. It’s the second time that the poll has not included the D/R/I split in its sample report, and now it looks as though this will be policy from this point forward. Since this is a poll series that has handed double-digit partisan advantages to Democrats in the past (for instance, this poll from April 2011 where the sample only had 22% Republicans), it’s not enough to just hear “trust us” on sample integrity from the Washington Post or ABC.

Joe Scarborough had a jocular way this morning of pointing out the pro-Dem bias in ABC/Washington Post polls. On Morning Joe, after Mark Halperin cited a new poll from the conglomerate with many findings favorable to President Obama, Scarborough facetiously asked "does Axelrod poll for ABC?" View the video here.

Park Romney says some pretty wild things. Mormonism, he writes on the Web site parkromney.com, “is an insidious contemporary fraud.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “an American cult,” he professes. Mitt Romney, he claims, would be conflicted in office because “obedience to the leadership of the Mormon Church is part of the covenant of the temple ordinances to which Mitt Romney is absolutely a party.” Were you to come across a man articulating such views on a street corner, you probably would give him a wide berth and look over your shoulder to make sure he...

The Florida primary may have delivered a decisive victory for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, but the exit polls also revealed a bright spot for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — the tea party. Gingrich racked up a decisive victory of his own among voters who said they “strongly support” the tea party movement, according to exit poll data compiled by Fox News. Overall, 45 percent of those voters chose Gingrich over Romney, who finished with just 33 percent of support from strong supporters of the tea party movement. The tea party is also thought to have played a key...

People are still voting. Polls don't close for another hour. Please, refrain from posting any exit polling data.

When all polls close by 8 p.m. Eastern tonight in Florida, the winner of the state’s Republican primary may not initially be apparent. After all, the winner takes all, which means the candidate who gets the most votes gets all of the delegates. But the state, with 10 different media markets and a cultural mélange that ranges from Alabama South to Cuba North, is by no means homogeneous. Here are five crucial indicators to keep track of as the returns come in: Absentee VotersThe first key factor is, about a third of Florida voters have already cast their ballots, and...

While Mitt Romney has opened a commanding 14-point lead in Florida in a Quinnipiac poll released Monday morning, Newt Gingrich continues to generate a more favorable conversation online—a good sign for his chances of picking up support from the one-in-three voters there who are yet to fully commit to a candidate. While both men have had sub-zero favorability ratings for the last week as they’ve amped up their attacks on one another following Gingrich’s South Carolina win, the former speaker’s-22 rating gives him a 15-point advantage over Romney in the Election Oracle’s measure of the online conversation. (GRAPH AT LINK)...

A new InsiderAdvantage poll conducted Sunday night of likely Republican voters in the state of Florida shows a significant surge for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The poll has former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leading with 36 percent of voters, followed by Gingrich at 31 percent. The Sunday results of 646 likely GOP voters are as follows: Romney 36 percent Gingrich 31 percent Santorum 12 percent Paul 12 percent Other/Undecided 9 percent "The race will be tighter than expected," Matt Towery, chief pollster of InsiderAdvantage told Newsmax. Towery noted that his poll showed a surge for Romney on Wednesday, with...

Poll: Romney holds big lead over Gingrich in Florida By Marc Caputo The Miami Herald In Florida’s Republican primary, Mitt Romney’s lead looks insurmountable — and he beats President Barack Obama in a head-to-head race, poll shows.

Voters continue to trust Republicans more than Democrats on the number one issue of the economy, but they now trust Democrats at least slightly more on five of the 10 most important issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports. The two parties are nearly tied on five of the 10, though. This is the first survey since May 2009 in which the GOP doesn't have an edge on a majority of the issues. Economy 40% - democRATS 47% - Republicans Health Care 44% - democRATS 42% - Republicans Education 42% - democRATS 40% - Republicans Iraq 43% - democRATS 42% -...

..... I’ve got a new partisan breakdown of some numbers from the new NBC/WSJ poll, and here’s the verdict: Romney’s unfavorability rating among independents has spiked 20 points in the last two months. The poll found that among overall Americans, Romney is rated very or somewhat positively by 31 percent, while he’s rated very or somewhat negatively by 36 percent............ In November, Romney was rated somewhat or very negatively by 22 percent of independents. In December, Romney was rated somewhat or very negatively by 29 percent of independents. And in the new poll, Romney was rated somewhat or very negatively...

A newly released Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll show Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, leading Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor. The latest nationwide shows Mr. Gingrich leading Mr. Romney by nine percentage points, one of his largest leads to date. According to the poll, Republican voters gave the former House speaker high marks for knowledge and experience, while they continued to harbor doubts about Mr. Romney’s positions on the issues and his feel for average Americans. The poll also found voters hold negative feelings towards the Georgia Republican, who has spent the past several says increasing his criticism...

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich holds a 9-point lead over his GOP rival Mitt Romney among Republican voters nationwide, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

With little hope of performing well in Florida next week, Rick Santorum may be cutting his losses. The Republican primary, as predicted, has become solidly a two-man contest between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. Santorum is struggling to compete in a state that is much larger, much more expensive and has a more diverse electorate than the previous three contests. The former Pennsylvania senator told reporters in Florida that he was leaving the state after Thursday night's debate for a fundraiser in Pennsylvania and to prepare his tax records to make public at home in Virginia, according to an NBC...

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are locked in a virtual dead heat just days before Florida’s pivotal Jan. 31 primary, according to a new TIME/CNN/ORC poll. Romney earns the backing of 36% of the state’s registered Republicans, a slight edge over the 34% who prefer Gingrich. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who was belatedly declared the winner of the Iowa caucus, came in third in the survey, notching support from 11% of respondents. Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who is skipping Florida to concentrate on smaller caucus states, trails with 9%. After three states produced three different winners, Florida has emerged...

Ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich is surging in Florida on the heels of his victory in last Saturday’s Republican primary in South Carolina, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. After trailing Mitt Romney by more than 20 points, Gingrich is now just two points behind the man he calls a “Massachusetts moderate.” Romney is at 36 percent, Gingrich 34 percent, ex-Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum at 13 percent, with Texas Rep. Ron Paul trailing at 10 percent. Gingrich is actually ahead among voters polled by Quinnipiac after his Palmetto State victory. The Florida contest is getting nasty. So far, Romney and...

Mitt Romney has maintained his lead in the Florida Republican presidential primary. Romney leads with 41%, followed by Newt Gingrich with 34%, Rick Santorum with 9%, and Ron Paul with 7%. In a similar survey conducted January 13-15, 2012, Romney was at 42% and Gingrich was at 25%. A total of 17% of Republican primary voters say that they have already voted by absentee ballot or in early voting. Of this group of voters, Romney leads with 51%, followed by Gingrich with 39%, Paul with 6%, and Santorum with 4%. Among the 83% of the remaining likely Republican primary voters,...

“I’m absolutely confident we’re going to win this thing,” Barack Hussein Obama whistled past the graveyard and told a gathering of 50 people at Spike Lee’s house the other night. Apparently Barack hasn’t read the polls in quite a while, but then again neither have the likes of Karl Rove Ann Coulter or George Will. Just a month ago in a Christmas week release designed to make certain it was lost, Gallup unveiled an ugly picture for Barack Obama and the Republican establishment. Gallup says there is not only a high level of enthusiasm for throwing Obama out (64% of...

Just one week ago, I used this column to concede that the GOP establishment had prevailed in its primary process, and that Mitt Romney was likely headed to the nomination. What a difference a week makes, huh? Fueled by his performance in the two pre-primary debates last week, as well as lingering distaste for Romney, Newt Gingrich enjoyed a breakout electoral win in South Carolina. His double-digit blowout has translated to serious momentum. Gallup’s tracking poll, which had given Romney a 10-point national lead over Gingrich early last week, clocked in Monday with a statistically insignificant 1-point Romney edge. And...

Gallup Daily Tracking

From Public Policy Polling, whose poll shows a slightly smaller lead (5 percentage points) for Newt Gingrich than two others today that had him up by 8 and 9 percentage points, respectively: PPP's first post-South Carolina poll in Florida finds Newt Gingrich with a small lead. He's at 38% to 33% for Mitt Romney, 13% for Rick Santorum, and 10% for Ron Paul. Gingrich has gained 12 points since a PPP poll conducted in Florida a week ago. Romney has dropped 8 points. Paul and Santorum have pretty much remained in place. Their favorability numbers show similar trendlines. Gingrich's has...

Less than two weeks ago, Mitt Romney had a 22-point lead in Florida, but that’s ancient history in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Following his big win in South Carolina on Saturday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich now is on top in Florida by nine.

PPP's first post-South Carolina poll in Florida finds Newt Gingrich with a small lead. He's at 38% to 33% for Mitt Romney, 13% for Rick Santorum, and 10% for Ron Paul. Gingrich has gained 12 points since a PPP poll conducted in Florida a week ago. Romney has dropped 8 points. Paul and Santorum have pretty much remained in place. Their favorability numbers show similar trendlines. Gingrich's has increased 8 points from +15 (51/36) to +23 (57/34). Meanwhile Romney's has declined 13 points from +44 (68/24) to +31 (61/30). Here's the good news for Gingrich in this poll:

Mitt Romney’s greatest asset and his primary pitch to voters, the assumption that he is the most viable candidate to face President Obama in a general election, is taking a bruising after Newt Gingrich trounced him in South Carolina on Saturday. The latest Gallup tracking poll of the electorate shows President Obama at parity with both Romney and Gingrich – both Republicans pull 48 percent of the electorate to Obama’s 50 percent. Among national Republicans, Romney’s 10+ point lead over Gingrich has evaporated nearly overnight. Romney’s 23 point lead over Gingrich on January 15 has turned into a 1 point...

One week ago, Newt Gingrich was on the ropes in South Carolina, under near-universal assault on the right from his attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital. Everyone from Rush Limbaugh to the Club for Growth and the Wall Street Journal had all declared their disgust. The conservative backlash had given Romney a double-digit lead in the polls. At a candidate forum hosted by Mike Huckabee, Gingrich was booed by the crowd when he tried to defend his Bain attacks. Fast forward one week, and Gingrich is the winner of the South Carolina primary. Not only did Gingrich win,...

By the time the voting started yesterday in the South Carolina Republican primary, the collective judgment of the political class was that Newt Gingrich was all but certain to beat Mitt Romney badly — the only question was how badly. Plenty of prognosticators, including Impolitic, predicted that Gingrich would win by a double-digit margin, as he did (the final spread was 13 points, on a 40 to 27 percent split). But virtually no one would have dared venture a forecast of a blowout as abject and total as the one that indeed took place. Take a gander at the exit...

Two new Florida primary polls, the first since Newt Gingrich's deeply, profoundly impressive victory in South Carolina on Saturday, have now been released, and it appears that the bounce everyone thought he would receive has materialized as expected. An Insider Advantage poll has Gingrich leading Mitt Romney 34 percent to 26 percent, while a Rasmussen poll has Gingrich up 41 percent to 32 percent. Meanwhile, PPP has also tweeted out much tighter (preliminary) numbers from its polling efforts in the Sunshine and Meth and Old People State: Gingrich and Romney are separated by just two voters after polling 600 people....

Presumably, polling data that is more comprehensive and authoritative will be released in the next few days, but the initial indicators point to a Florida primary race that has been utterly transformed by Newt Gingrich’s resurgence. Just a week ago, when he was coming off victories in Iowa* and New Hampshire and seemed on his way to a convincing South Carolina win, three different polls in the Sunshine State gave Mitt Rommey an average lead of 22 points, with Newt Gingrich running a very distant second in one of them and third (behind Rick Santorum) in the other. But now...

Team Newt brags that they have picked up $1 million in donations and 500 new volunteers in Florida since Saturday: INSIDER ADVANTAGE POLL: The firm’s latest Florida poll shows the race as Newt at 34% and Mitt Romney at 26. GALLUP NATIONAL POLL: Last week, Gallup’s Frank Newport said that Governor Romney’s national lead was “collapsing.” The latest Gallup tracking data shows that it continues to fall. Now, Romney is at 30%, with Newt at 25%. Romney lost one point and Newt gained two in the latest release. KNOCKOUT PUNCH MONEYBOMB: In less than 24 hours after the South Carolina...

Newt Gingrich has now surged to a significant lead over Mitt Romney in Florida, leading the former front-runner now by 8 points, according to a new poll by InsiderAdvantage completed Sunday night of likely Republican primary voters. The InsiderAdvantage poll of of 557 registered Republican voters is one of the first polls taken in Florida in the aftermath of Gingrich's double-digit win in the South Carolina primary Saturday. The poll results follow: Gingrich: 34% Romney: 26% Paul: 13% Santorum: 11% Other: 2% No opinion: 14% The InsiderAdvantage poll was the first major poll last week to show the significant surge...

Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary, 40 percent to 28 percent, over Mitt Romney. He also won every Congressional district and, in doing so, won all of South Carolina’s 25 delegates. Now the battle heads to Florida, which holds its primary on Jan. 31. Here are five things to look for as the race heads to Florida. 1. Momentum versus organization Newt Gingrich will come into Florida with momentum, gained from winning South Carolina’s primary, which every Republican presidential nominee has won since 1980. But Romney has a head start in Florida. He has hundreds of thousands of absentee...

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- South Carolina Republicans went to the polls Saturday, poised to shake up the presidential campaign and deny Mitt Romney the easy victory he'd hoped might cap a march to the party's presidential nomination. Even before the South Carolina polls closed at 7 p.m. EST, it was clear that Palmetto State Republicans were refusing to go along with what days earlier appeared to be a Romney sweep to victory in their state. A new American Research Group poll released Saturday showed Gingrich with 40 percent of the vote, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney trailed at 26 percent....

CLEMSON, S.C. — With polls opening in less than 24 hours for the important South Carolina presidential primary election, the final Palmetto Poll shows Newt Gingrich leading over Mitt Romney in a gritty battle fraught with personal attacks and breaking news about the candidates’ personal lives. That’s the finding of the third Clemson University 2012 Palmetto Poll, a sample of 429 South Carolina GOP voters who indicated they plan to vote Saturday. The telephone poll was initiated Jan. 13 and recalibrated Jan. 18-19 to measure changing dynamics. Twenty percent of the likely voters remain undecided. “We expect a reaction by...

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- With a just-completed Clemson Palmetto (S.C.) poll showing 20 percent of likely voters in today’s Republican presidential primary undecided, many political pundits are convinced that the race could go to either Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney. One of Gingrich’s top supporters in the Palmetto State argued otherwise, stating that those who are undecided are more likely to fall into the camp of the former House speaker than that of the former Massachusetts governor. (VIDEO AT LINK) “These [undecided] voters are conservative, and Mitt Romney has always had the problem of proving he is genuinely conservative,” Mike Campbell,...

Newt Gingrich heads into South Carolina election day as the clear front runner in the state: he's now polling at 37% to 28% for Mitt Romney, 16% for Rick Santorum, and 14% for Ron Paul. Gingrich's lead has actually increased in the wake of his ex-wife's controversial interview with ABC. Although one night poll results should always be interpreted with caution, he led the final night of the field period by a 40-26 margin. One thing that continues to work to his advantage are the debates. 60% of primary voters report having watched the one last night, and Gingrich has...

Unlike Mitt Romney, who occasionally beats President Obama in general election poll match ups, Newt Gingrich trails far behind President Obama in every survey. But just how bad are Gingrich's unfavorable among the general public compared to Obama and Romney? Not every poll releases their full results, so here are the most recent favorability results I could find for Obama, Romney, and Newt. Fox News, 1/12-1/14: Obama, fav/unfav, 51%/46%, +5 Romney, fav/unfav, 45%/38%, +7 Gingrich, fav/unfav, 27%/56%, -29 CBS/NYT, 1/12-1/17: Obama, fav/unfav, 38%/45%, -7 Romney, fav/unfav, 21%/35%, -14 Gingrich, fav/unfav, 17%/49%, -32 PPP, 1/13-1/17: Obama, app/dis, 47%/50%, -3 Romney, fav/unfav,...

CLEMSON, S.C. — With polls opening in less than 24 hours for the important South Carolina presidential primary election, the final Palmetto Poll shows Newt Gingrich leading over Mitt Romney in a gritty battle fraught with personal attacks and breaking news about the candidates’ personal lives. That’s the finding of the third Clemson University 2012 Palmetto Poll, a sample of 429 South Carolina GOP voters who indicated they plan to vote Saturday. The telephone poll was initiated Jan. 13 and recalibrated Jan. 18-19 to measure changing dynamics. Twenty percent of the likely voters remain undecided. “We expect a reaction by...

If frontrunner Mitt Romney survives the Republican primary process and becomes the party's presumptive nominee, a majority of Democrats surveyed in this week's National Journal Political Insiders Poll say he will enter the general election campaign a weaker candidate than when he began his run. But by an overwhelming margin, Republican Insiders feel the primary campaign has been a benefit, leaving Romney stronger and more prepared to take on President Obama. (GRAPH AT LINK) Many Republicans feel the primary process has been a critical pressure-test for Romney's campaign skills, resulting in a more honed and prepared candidate. "He has weathered...

Three new polls released Thursday have Newt Gingrich in the South Carolina over Mitt Romney, while a third poll showed the former House Speaker received a boost from his debate performance Monday. Gingrich leads Romney by 34 percent to 28 percent, according to Public Policy Polling. Gingrich has risen from 23 percent over the last two weeks as other candidates faltered. Rasmussen has Gingrich at 33 percent versus Romney’s 31 percent. Romney held a 14-point lead in a Rasmussen poll taken just before Monday’s debate. American Research Group puts Gingrich with 33 percent, narrowly ahead of Romney at 32 percent....

After showing him closed with a couple points yesterday, the surge in Rasmussen's vaunted polling (accuracy born of asking only likely voters, not just 'registered' or 'adults') continues today with Newt now out front of a nervous Mittens by 2 pts now.... Add Perry's pending endorsement, and it's 'Marianne who?' Bring it on, MSM scumbags! btw, I just watched that interview with her anyway... Marianne (herself a homewrecker) DIRECTLY contradicts what she said in a 1999 WaPo interview!!! (-here-)