Swing State Poll: Obama, Romney Locked

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In addition to the Gallup swing state poll out on Monday morning, DC firm Purple Strategies is out with their monthly Purple Poll, showing a small lead for President Obama against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and a larger one against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The Purple poll uses interviews with voters from Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. January’s numbers show Obama over Romney 46 – 44 in the twelve states, and up 49 – 43 on Gingrich.

From the pollster’s analysis:

The continuing challenge facing Obama becomes clear when we ask Purple State voters who they believe will do the best job on the economy and creating jobs. They believe Romney would do a better job than Obama (43%-42%). The president leads Gingrich on this measure by just four points (45%-41%). While the economy is on the upswing, voters’ confidence in Obama’s handling of it will be important to monitor.

We took a close look at Florida in this PurplePoll, and we see substantial challenges for President Obama in a state that has 29 electoral votes at stake. He trails Romney in this critical swing state (44%-46%), and leads Gingrich by just a single point (47%-46%). Additionally, his approval rating is substantially worse in Florida than it is across Purple states – just 40% approve of the job he is doing, and 56% disapprove. Clearly, the president has work to do moving forward.

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