Santorum Takes Slight Lead Over Romney in Michigan GOP Primary Race
In better times for Mitt Romney, the primary in his home state of Michigan looked like easy pickings for him, but yet another poll shows Rick Santorum with a real chance to win in the state’s February 28 vote.
Santorum is leading Romney 34 percent to 30.4 percent with 11.6 percent for Newt Gingrich, and 8.9 percent for Ron Paul, with 12.4 percent undecided, according to a Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll conducted Feb. 11-13. the margin of error is 4.388 points.
The poll adds bad news for Romney in the Midwest, coming on the heels of a Quinnipiac University survey that found him trailing Santorum in Ohio, which votes March 6 among the Super Tuesday states.
About a quarter of voters in the News/WDIV poll said the ability to beat Obama was their most important criteria, and by that measure, Romney led Santorum by 42.2 percent to 18.4 percent. Romney also has a sizable lead over Santorum among the roughly 16 percent who say finding a strong leader is most important to them.
But Romney has far less advantage on other characteristics regarded by voters as important. About one-fifth say that having a “clear vision for America” is the most important attribute, and Romney leads Santorum on that score by a lesser 27.4 percent to 22.28 percent. Just over 17 percent wanted a candidate who shared their positions, and Santorum led Romney on this characteristic by 36.8 percent to 23.2 percent. About 16 percent put “strong moral character” on the top of their list, and Santorum led Romney by 47 percent to 28.8 percent.
Nearly 71 percent said they supported the tea party movement.
Michigan Republicans had mixed feelings about their field. Just under half (49.2 percent) were satisfied with the candidates while 44 percent preferred another choice, with 6.8 percent undecided.
The poll found that most voters said two things about Romney — his opposition to the bailout of the auto industry and his Mormonism — would make no difference to their decisions.
Nearly 51 percent said opposition to giving government loans to the auto industry (Romney opposed the bailout) would make no difference to their vote, just under 20 percent said such a stand would make it more likely that they would support such a candidate and 11 percent said much less, with the rest undecided. Eighty-four percent said Romney’s religion made no difference to them.
Romney got one bit of good news when first-term Republican Gov. Rick Snyder endorsed him on Thursday.
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