Former House Speaker and presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich holds a narrow lead over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney among Republican voters in Virginia heading into 2012, a new poll shows.
Gingrich leads Romney 30 percent to 25 percent with no other GOP candidate breaking single digits, according to the Quinnipiac University poll released this morning.
The last time Quinnipiac University polled in Virginia, in October, Gingrich had only 7 percent support.
Gingrich will be in the Richmond area Thursday morning, attending a Republican Party of Virginia breakfast at the Short Pump Hilton.
While Gingrich tops Romney in popularity, Romney fares better in a head-to-head match-up with President Barack Obama, leading the president 44 percent to 42 percent, which is within the margin of error. Gingrich trails the president 46 percent to 41 percent.
A majority of Republican voters also say that Romney would do a better job than Gingrich of handling the economy. But Gingrich is seen as a stronger leader, better on foreign policy and possessing better knowledge and experience for the job of president.
Gingrich is viewed favorably by 29 percent of Virginia voters and unfavorably by 45 percent. Romney is seen favorably by 37 percent of voters and unfavorably by 27 percent.
Obama has a 45-47 percent favorability rating, but polls better than Republicans with independents. Fifty one percent of voters disapprove of the job he is doing as president with 42 percent approving and 53 percent say he does not deserve a second term.
And as countless other polls have shown for months, U.S. Senate race front-runners and former Govs. George Allen and Timothy M. Kaine are deadlocked in the high-profile contest to succeed retiring Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.
The poll shows Allen, a Republican, at 44 percent and Kaine, a Democrat, at 42 percent. That difference is within the poll’s margin of error.
“Two popular former governors mean Virginia’s U.S. Senate race could be a real cliff-hanger. This is the fourth Quinnipiac University poll showing the 2012 race too close to call,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
The poll of 1,135 registered voters was conducted Dec. 13 through Dec. 19 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The Republican-only portions of the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
-- Wesley P. Hester
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