While he has only been in the Republican presidential race for less than two weeks, a new poll finds Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is now the front-runner for the GOPs nomination.
The national poll of Republicans from Public Policy Polling (PPP), which has ties to many prominent Democrats, found Perry leading the pack with 33 percent of the vote. Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts placed second with 20 percent, followed by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who led a PPP national poll last month before Perry entered the race.
The rest of the field followed in single digits. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia took fourth with 8 percent, while U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and businessman Herman Cain tied for fifth with 6 percent.
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah each garnered 4 percent.
Perry still led when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who could enter the contest, was added to the mix. In that scenario, Perry took 27 percent followed by Romney with 17 percent. Palin placed third with 13 percent, followed by Bachmann who dropped down to 10 percent.
Cain and Gingrich tied for fifth with 7 percent, followed by Santorum with 3 percent and Huntsman with 2 percent.
The Texas governor was helped by being the candidate with the highest favorables -- 64 percent -- and lowest unfavorables --17 percent -- in the field.
Of voters surveyed, 62 percent saw Palin in a favorable light while 30 percent viewed her as unfavorable.
According to the poll, Republicans held Romney and Bachmann positively with both garnering 51 percent favorablity. On the other hand, 33 percent of those surveyed saw Romney as unfavorable and 32 percent saw Bachmann as unfavorable.
PPP President Dean Debnam said these numbers show Perry is in better shape than many of the other candidates whose names have been bandied about for the Republican nomination.
There have been a lot of flavors of the month in the Republican presidential race and its possible that Rick Perry is just another of those, said Debnam. But his support right now is stronger than Michele Bachmann's or Herman Cain's or Donald Trump's or Mike Huckabees ever were which suggests he should have more staying power.
The poll of 663 usual Republican primary voters was taken from Aug. 18-21 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
