Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is crushing his GOP rivals in Virginia three months ahead of the state's Republican presidential primary, according to a poll released Tuesday.
The poll conducted by the Democratic-leaning, North Carolina based Public Policy Polling shows Gingrich to be the clear front runner in the commonwealth with 41 percent of respondents supporting him, compared to 15 percent for his closest competitor, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The rest of the field of GOP hopefuls don't even break into double digits heading into the March 6 primary contest. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Gov. Rick Perry came in at 8 percent; former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Congressman Ron Paul recieved 6 percent; former Utah Gov. John Huntsman garnered 3 percent and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson got 1 percent.
In the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination for the seat being vacated by Democrat Jim Webb, former Gov. George Allen is dominating his competition more handily than Gingrich with 67 percent of respondents saying he should be the GOP nominee.
Allen's closest competition is Tea Party favorite Jaime Radtke, who polls at 5 percent. Rounding out the Republican field for the June primary are E.W. Jackson with 3 percent and Tom Donner and David McCormick each receiving 2 percent.
Moving even farther out, the poll looked at the 2013 Republican primary for the governor's office. In the race which so far is between Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Cuccinelli is the strong favorite a year and a half out from the primary election leading Bolling 44 percent to 25 percent.
“The Virginia Republican electorate is trending very conservative right now with its preference for Newt Gingrich, George Allen, and Ken Cuccinelli,” said Public Policy Polling president Dean Debnam. “It will be interesting to see how viable those guys end up being in a general election.”
The survey of 350 Republican primary voters was conducted between Dec. 11 and 13 using automated telephone calls, and has a +/-5.2 percent margin of error.
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