Poll: Newt Gingrich in dead heat with Mitt Romney in NH
Newt Gingrich speaks during a debate hosted by CNBC and the Michigan Republican Party at Oakland University on November 9, 2011 in Rochester, Michigan.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney are in a statistical dead heat for the Jan. 10 primary, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A NH Journal poll of likely Republican primary voters conducted by Magellan Stategies shows that if the election were held today, Romney would earn 29 percent of the vote, and Gingrich would earn 27 percent.
The poll shows that Texas Congressman Ron Paul would earn 16 percent, and Herman Cain would get 10 percent. No other candidate is in the double digits, the NH Journal reported.
According to the NH Journal, Gingrich is actually leading Romney among certain subgroups of the electorate. Gingrich beats Romney (34 percent to 27 percent) among self-identified conservative voters. He leads 38 percent to Romney's 22 percent among self-identified tea party voters.
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The poll is an outlier from other poll findings. Romney has consistently polled around 40 percent, the Huffington Post reported. In a Bloomberg poll of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire conducted a week ago, Romney received 40 percent and Gingrich 11 percent.
According to the Huffington Post:
Michael Dennehy, a Concord-based Republican consultant who is unaffiliated in the primary, said that the Magellan poll "says less about Mitt Romney and more about New Hampshire voters wanting a contest with another credible contender, and that candidate today is Newt Gingrich."
"Rarely, if ever, has the New Hampshire primary been a runaway, so this was to be expected. But for Newt to sustain these numbers he has a lot of work to do," Dennehy told The Huffington Post. "Romney is the strongest on the ground and has developed intimate relationships where Newt has not. This is indeed an important snapshot but by no means indicates that Romney is struggling. He is still very positive."
The poll is bad news for Cain who has been slipping in the polls since sexual harassment allegations against him were reported.
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