Rick Santorum Leads Romney 39% to 24% in Michigan According to Public Policy Polling

Now that the three day average of polling by Public Policy Polling (PPP) is in, Romney camp is bound to go 'scored earth' against Santorum.  Did not realize that Michigan is an open primary state which we bet that Romney was counting on to deliver him the win but Romney is not doing well with independents and Democrats who actually are voting against him even more than Republicans.   The internals of this poll are actually much better than I ever would have expected out of Michigan.  The inevitable of Romney winning is not so inevitable today.

Looks like the establishment Rockefeller Republican crowd has a freight train heading their way.  We will know more after Super Tuesday but rumors have some establishment types looking around for a candidate for a brokered convention to lead the Republicans against Obama.  Stay tuned as this Republican primary is getting interesting.  No more Mr. Inevitable for Romney is good news for the Republican Party.

February 13, 2012
Santorum moves ahead in Michigan 

Rick Santorum's taken a large lead in Michigan's upcoming Republican primary. He's at 39% to 24% for Mitt Romney, 12% for Ron Paul, and 11% for Newt Gingrich. 

Santorum's rise is attributable to two major factors: his own personal popularity (a stellar 67/23 favorability) and GOP voters increasingly souring on Gingrich. Santorum's becoming something closer and closer to a consensus conservative candidate as Gingrich bleeds support. 

Santorum's winning an outright majority of the Tea Party vote with 53% to 22% for Romney and 10% for Gingrich. He comes close to one with Evangelicals as well at 48% to 20% for Romney and 12% for Gingrich. And he cracks the 50% line with voters identifying as 'very conservative' at 51% to 20% for Romney and 10% for Gingrich. 

Santorum's benefiting from the open nature of Michigan's primary as well. He's only up by 12 points with actual Republican voters, but he has a 40-21 advantage with the Democrats and independents planning to vote that pushes his overall lead up to 15 points. Santorum is winning by a healthy margin in every region of the state except for Oakland County, where Romney has a 40-26 advantage, and the area around Lansing where Paul actually has an advantage at 30% to 27% for both Romney and Santorum. 

Continue reading "Santorum moves ahead in Michigan" »