Gov. Rick Perry of Texas announced his entry into the Republican presidential race on Saturday, and three days later a new poll is showing that he has a large lead over the rest of the field.
A national poll unveiled by Rasmussen Reports Tuesday finds Perry easily brushing aside former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts to top the poll. Perry took 29 percent to lead the pack while Romney, who had been the front-runner, came in second with 18 percent. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who won the Iowa straw poll on Saturday, placed third with 13 percent.
The rest of the field is in single digits. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who came in second just behind Bachmann in the Iowa straw poll, took fourth in the Rasmussen poll with 9 percent. Businessman Herman Cain placed fifth with 6 percent, followed by another favorite son from Georgia -- former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- with 5 percent. Despite a better-than-expected showing in the Iowa straw poll, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania did not gain traction in the Rasmussen poll. Santorum tied with former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman with 1 percent. U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter of Michigan picked up less than 1 percent.
A Rasmussen poll released Aug. 1 found Romney holding onto the lead. In that poll, Romney took 22 percent, followed by Perry with 18 percent and Bachmann in third with 16 percent.
Governor Perry is enjoying a bounce from entering the race at precisely the right time, said Scott Rasmussen. Now the difficult part begins for the new front-runner. Its much easier winning support when people are hoping you will get in the race, than retaining support when you are the front-runner.
If there is a silver lining for Romney in the poll, he does have the highest approval rating with 77 percent of the likely Republican primary voters seeing him in a favorable light, as opposed to 71 percent for Bachmann and 69 percent for Perry. But Perry and Bachmann beat out Romney when it comes to being seen as very favorable. Thirty-eight percent of those surveyed had very favorable views of Perry and 32 percent said that about Bachmann. Only 21 percent of the Republicans had very favorable impressions of Romney.
Ron Paul was upside down in the poll with 43 percent of Republicans viewing him favorably and 45 percent seeing him as unfavorable. The poll gave Gingrich mixed marks with only 48 percent of likely primary voters seeing him as favorable and 43 percent as unfavorable.
The survey of 1,000 likely Republican primary voters was conducted on Aug. 15 by Rasmussen Reports and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
