Rick Santorum Beating Mitt Romney in New Poll of Louisiana

A poll released Friday from Public Policy Polling, a firm with connections to prominent Democrats, shows Rick Santorum with an impressive lead in Louisiana which holds its Republican presidential primary on Saturday.

Santorum takes 42 percent in the poll of likely Republican primary voters, while Mitt Romney places second with 28 percent. Newt Gingrich takes third with 18 percent followed by Ron Paul with 8 percent and Buddy Roemer with 2 percent. Roemer, a former Louisiana governor who also was elected to four terms in the U.S. House, pulled out of the race for the Republican nomination and is now running to be the candidate of the Reform Party and Americans Elect.

Rick Santorums headed for another victory in the South tomorrow, said Dean Debnam, the president of PPP. The good news for Mitt Romney is that the next month of the campaign will play out on much better terrain for him.

The poll of 650 likely Louisiana Republican primary voters was taken March 21-22 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percent.