Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney’s non-endorsement of conservative efforts to defend SB 5 in Ohio, the anti-union law that supporters say is necessary to control the state budget, served as a way to rile his fellow Republicans and revived a classic anti-Romney charge. Conservatives went after him for being too soft on the issues and willing to change his views to fit the circumstances.
But was it smart politics?
A new Quinnipiac poll out Wednesday shows that Romney is the only GOP challenger in Ohio within the poll’s margin of error against President Obama in a large sample of registered voters, with new frontrunner Herman Cain and previous GOP leader Texas Gov. Rick Perry bested handily by the President. Romney is down 45 – 41 against Obama, with Cain down 47 – 39 and Perry behind 47 – 36.
But as has been the case, Romney’s problem isn’t showing strength against Obama, it’s getting out of the GOP primary. Cain has leapfrogged over Romney for the lead in the Ohio GOP primary, in which Perry is now tied with Rep. Michele Bachmann at 4 percent.
Perry, likely seeing an opportunity, came out hard in favor of SB 5 after Romney waffled, saying he supported Gov. John Kasich’s (R) efforts to curtail union rights in the name of balancing budgets. Should the GOP infighting continue, Perry’s aim is obviously to increase his standing in Ohio and elsewhere by aligning himself with conservatives, a group that he dominated in polling two months ago but has essentially lost to Cain. The former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza was silent on SB 5 on Tuesday.
In the meantime, President Obama maintains a lead in Quinnipiac’s polling of the state despite being unpopular. That wasn’t the case with Public Policy Polling (D), which said that if the election were held tomorrow, Romney would win it.
“Ohio voters are not happy with the president’s performance and don’t think he deserves a second term. But elections are about choices,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in a release. “At this point none of the Republicans are able to take advantage of these presidential negatives. The next year will determine if the GOP is able to nominate a candidate who can do so.”
The Quinnipiac poll used 1,668 live telephone interviews with registered Ohio voters conducted from Otcober 17th to the 23rd. It has a sampling error of 2.4 percent.
