Mike Huckabee continues to own the entire GOP field in early polls of the Iowa caucus, with a PPP poll of registered voters released on Tuesday showing the former Arkansas governor winning several hypothetical ballots by big margins.
And interestingly, Mitt Romney emerged as the second choice for Iowa Republicans in the poll, even though nearly two-thirds of respondents said they would not consider voting for a candidate who supported a state-level universal health care law, which is precisely what Romney did as governor of Massachusetts.
In an eight-deep slate of candidates, Huckabee came out on top at 27%, followed by Romney at 16%, and Donald Trump at 14%. Newt Gingrich (9%) and Sarah Palin (8%) rounded out the top five.
With Trump taken out of the running, Huckabee’s share of the vote rose to 30%, while Romney placed second with 18%. And with both Trump and Palin gone, Huckabee improved to 33%, compared to Romney’s 20% and Gingrich’s 13%.
Huckabee has cleaned house in virtually every poll of the Iowa caucus, typically leading by double-digits over the competition. Though he has yet to decide on a White House bid, his strong performance in Iowa shows that he could once again win the first in the nation primary contest should he run for president in 2012.
But with Huckabee out of the picture, Romney trumped the competition in the PPP survey. In one contest, Romney garnered 25%, well ahead of Palin, Gingrich, and Ron Paul, who all tied for second with 15%. With Palin and Huckabee off the list, Romney inched up to 28%, followed by Gingrich at 19%, and Ron Paul at 16%.
Romney’s decent showing came despite 63% of respondents saying they would not vote for someone who pushed for a universal health care bill at the state level. Yet that’s exactly what Romney did in Massachusetts, and though he has tried to qualify his past support for that law, the issue is likely to dog him in an election that will be a referendum on Obama’s presidency.
Additionally, just 11% of respondents said they would be willing to vote for a candidate with health care baggage, and 26% said they weren’t sure yet.
The PPP poll was conducted April 15-17 among 419 registered voters. It has a margin of error of 4.8%.
