A poll commissioned by the Alabama Education Association shows Mitt Romney with a rather surprising 10 point lead in the Heart of Dixie.
Six days out from Alabama’s GOP presidential primary, a new poll shows former Gov. Mitt Romney with a 10 point lead over Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.
The poll, conducted by the polling are of the Alabama Education Association, showed Romney with 31.2 percent, Santorum with 21.6 percent and Gingrich with 21.2 percent.
Congressman Ron Paul came in at just over 6 percent of the vote.
Almost 20 percent of the people surveyed said they were undecided.
I don’t have details of the polling methodology but RealClear Politics indicates that it’s a sample of likely voters, which is much more useful than a poll of adults or even registered voters. While it’s hard to believe that Romney, widely seen as having trouble appealing to conservative evangelical voters, could be leading in Alabama, which fashions itself as the buckle of the Bible Belt, it’s not shocking when one looks closely and sees that Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are almost dead even. Clearly, if this poll is even close to being an accurate reflection, Alabama’s evangelicals a torn between Santorum and Gingrich.
Both candidates have been urging the other to get out and give Republican primary voters a single “conservative” alternative to Romney. But neither has a particularly compelling case as to why they should be the one to stay nor a particularly compelling reason to drop out. While Santorum has won more states–by far–he actually has fewer delegates than Gingrich. And both have plenty of Super PAC money to sustain their campaign indefinitely.
