A new poll released today shows the Iowa caucus vote next Tuesday — as Republicans cast their first ballots for the race to replace pro-abortion President Barack Obama — will be a close one.
A new InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research poll among registered voters who say they will be voting in the first primary battleground state has GOP presidential candidates Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich tied at 17 percent apiece.
This is the second poll to confirm the surge in Iowa for Rick Santorum, who receives the support of 13 percent of Iowa Republican voters heading to the Tuesday caucus. Michele Bachmann places fifth with the backing of 12 percent, and Rick Perry receives support from about 11 percent.
The survey finds Bachmann and Paul lead with younger voters but Romney and Perry are ahead with older voters who are seen as more likely to participate in the caucus process. Male voters put Paul in first place followed by Gingrich and Bachmann while women prefer Romney, Gingrich and Santorum.
Registered Republican voters give Romney 20 percent of the vote compared with 18 percent for Gingrich and 14 percent for Santorum while independent voters back Paul first, then Santorum, and put Gingrich in third. Democrats, who are allowed to participate in the caucus if they change their party registration, favor Bachmann, Gingrich and then Paul.
Meanwhile, a new Rasmussen poll also released today shows Mitt Romney and Ron Paul remain the front-runners in Iowa for the third week in a row with the state’s Republican caucus just five days away. This Iowa survey of 750 Likely Republican Caucus Participants was conducted on December 28, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports.
“The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely GOP caucus participants finds Romney with 23% support to Paul’s 22%. Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum has moved into third place with 16%, his best showing to date, closely followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Governor Rick Perry who earn 13% of the vote each,” Rasmussen notes.
Michele Bachmann gets five percent in the Rasmussen survey and Jon Huntsman three percent.
The new polls follows one from CNN the other day, which had 25 percent of Iowa voters supporting Mitt Romney and Santorum surging.
The former Massachusetts governor is ahead with Congressman Ron Paul of Texas in second with 22 percent. Santorum, the pro-life former Pennsylvania senator, comes in third with 16 percent — well above the 5 percent he polled in the state in the CNN survey in November. Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker, places fourth with 14 percent of the vote.
“In Iowa, both Romney and Paul are each up five points among likely caucus goers from a CNN/Time/ORC poll conducted at the start of December,” CNN reports. “he new survey indicates that Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, is at 16% support, up 11 points from the beginning of the month, with Gingrich at 14%, down from 33% in the previous poll. Since Gingrich’s rise late last month and early this month in both national and early voting state surveys, he’s come under attack by many of the rival campaigns.”
“Santorum is campaigning on a shoestring budget, but he’s visited all of Iowa’s 99 counties and has made a strong pitch towards social conservative voters, who are very influential here in Iowa on the Republican side. Wednesday Santorum was up with a new radio spot on Hawkeye State airwaves touting endorsements by social conservative leaders. His pitch may be starting to pay off,” CNN indicated.
Obama has a lengthy pro-abortion record of promoting abortion both domestically and abroad and funding abortions, pro-abortion groups and abortion promotion with taxpayer dollars. He also packed the Supreme Court with pro-abortion justices who would rule to keep unlimited abortions legal for decades more.
Although their records and positions on pro-life issues vary somewhat, each of the Republican presidential candidates take pro-life positions on abortion and have supported legislation, amendments or changing the Supreme Court in a way that would overturn Roe and stop abortions. Most of the candidates have long records voting for or signing bills that would stop abortions and provide legal protection for unborn children. They have each either signed pro-life pledges or issued position statements promising to advance various pro-life public policies if elected president.
