With the Florida Republican presidential primary looming Tuesday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has taken a large lead, according to a poll released early Monday from Quinnipiac University.
The poll of likely voters finds that Romney takes 43 percent followed by former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 29 percent. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul are tied for third with 11 percent each. Seven percent say they are undecided. Less than a quarter -- 24 percent -- say they could change their minds before they vote.
"Governor Mitt Romney is headed toward a double-digit victory that touches all the GOP bases," said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in a written statement.
The poll finds that Romney has broken through to lead large segments of Republican voters, including conservatives, white evangelicals and supporters of the tea party movement. Romney takes 40 percent of self-identified conservatives while Gingrich rounds up 31 percent. Thirty-eight percent of white evangelicals back Romney while 33 percent say they will back Gingrich. Romney takes 40 percent of tea party supporters while 35 percent are behind Gingrich.
"Romney carries every part of the GOP coalition, including the parts central to Gingrich -- self- described conservatives, white evangelical Christians and tea party supporters, Brown noted. If this margin holds up tomorrow, it's hard to see where Gingrich goes from here."
The poll finds that Florida Republicans have grown increasingly wary of Gingrich. While 51 percent hold a favorable view of the former congressional leader, 42 percent see him as unfavorable. At the end of last week, Quinnipiac found that 28 percent of Florida Republicans saw Gingrich as unfavorable while 50 percent saw him in a favorable light.
Romney gets higher marks from Florida Republicans. Sixty-four percent view Romney as favorable while 25 percent see him as unfavorable -- a slight improvement from the 61-28 percent from the Quinnipiac poll last week. The new poll finds that Florida Republicans also think well of Santorum, with 58 percent seeing him as favorable and only 16 percent seeing him in an unfavorable light. Paul is upside down in the Sunshine State with only 35 percent seeing him as favorable while 45 percent view him as unfavorable.
The poll of 539 likely Florida Republican voters was taken from Jan. 27-29 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.2 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
