Romney drops two more points in New Hampshire, But likely Won’t Be Caught
Published: January 9th, 2012
MANCHESTER, N.H. – For the fifth day in a row, Mitt Romney has fallen in overnight tracking, but lack of movement by second place Ron Paul has insulated a likely Romney victory, according to the latest two-day Suffolk University/7News tracking poll of likely voters in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary.
The former governor of Massachuetts dropped 2 more percentage points overnight but still holds a 13-point lead at 33 percent. The former Massachusetts governor has dropped a full 10 points from five days ago, when he had 43 percent of likely GOP voters.
Romney is followed by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas (20 percent), former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman (13 percent), former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (11 percent) and former U.S. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania (10 percent), while Texas Governor Rick Perry and Buddy Roemer combined for 3 percent with 12 percent undecided.
“Mitt Romney’s biggest asset is the large number of candidates in this group that are dividing up the remainder of the vote,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston. “With just a 33 percent stake, he can control his destiny, so long as the others in his group continue to battle each other. So the more people in the group the merrier for Romney.”
Romney showed weakness among younger voters and in the north/west region of the state which includes the counties of Carroll, Cheshire, Coos, Grafton, and Sullivan. Among younger voters ages 18-34 years, Romney now trails Paul, who leads 36 percent to 22 percent. In the north/west region, Paul led Romney 25 percent to 21 percent.
Currently, the highest undecided category is women ages 18-44 years. There were 19 percent undecided in this category versus just 12 percent overall. (Marginals and cross tabs for the Suffolk poll can be viewed here.
The Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston us releasing results of two-day tracking polls every day leading up to the New Hampshire presidential primary tomorrow.