Last week I featured the monthly straw poll at GOP Bloggers, and once again CQ readers turned out in force to cast their ballots. Over 12,000 votes got cast for the January poll, and almost a third of them came from this blog -- and the results are a little surprising. Both among CQ voters and overall, Mitt Romney moved ahead of Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, and especially John McCain. The overall percentages are:

Romney - 27.6%
Gingrich - 24.3%
Giuliani - 21.1%

CQ polling shows a little different order:

Romney - 31.7%
Giuliani - 25.4%
Gingrich - 23.2%

In candidate acceptability, Romney won by a landslide among CQ readers. His rating, 63.2%, outstrips his nearest competitors by almost 10 points. In fact, only the top three candidates had positive acceptability ratings. John McCain had a -23%, but Chuck Hagel and George Pataki continue to score even worse than McCain.

Up to now, Giuliani has led these polls, which has surprised me considering his liberal viewpoint on social issues. Romney has made a concerted effort, especially in the blogosphere, to claim the front-runner position. With his splashy fund-raising debut and his aggressive early campaigning, he may have succeeded.

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» Skeptical and Then Some from Giopolitics
Much of the conservative blogosphere is atwitter over the candidacy of Mitt Romney.  He is smart, good looking, doesn’t mangle sentences, and an uninspiring Republican field (to this point) looks like the conservatives best shot.  Even if Romne... [Read More]

Tracked on January 16, 2007 7:10 PM