Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is desperate for a win in the Feb. 28 primary in his boyhood state of Michigan. And a new poll of primary voters shows he’s making some headway there.
The survey from
Public Policy Polling (PPP) indicates that former Massachusetts Gov. Romney now trails former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum by 4 percentage points, 37 percent to 33 percent, a 15-point gain from last week’s 39-24 tally. The poll’s margin of error is 4 percentage points, so the two candidates actually may be tied.
Ron Paul placed third with 15 percent support, followed by Newt Gingrich with 10 percent. A week ago, Paul had 12 percent support and Gingrich, 11 percent.
Romney’s comeback has more to do with voters’ increasingly positive view of him than an increasingly negative view of Santorum. Indeed, Santorum's favorability spread of 67 percent/23 percent is unchanged from a week ago. Those numbers mean that 67 percent of respondents view him favorably, while 23 percent view him unfavorably.
As for Romney’s favorability spread, it rose to 55 percent/35 percent from 49 percent/39 percent a week ago.
“What we're seeing in Michigan is a very different story from Florida, where Romney surged by effectively destroying his opponent's image,” according to the PPP analysis. “Here, Romney's gains have more to do with building himself up.”
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