PHOENIX - A new statewide poll suggests that all of the Republican contenders hoping to unseat Mitt Romney from his front-runner status should not even bother spending their time and money in Arizona.
"If they were spending my money, that's exactly what I'd tell them,'' said Jim Haynes, president of the Behavior Research Center. "It's not even close."
So wide is the disparity that Romney's support is greater than that of all the other candidates combined. And no one of them could defeat the former Massachusetts governor even if that person were able to get all the support of every one of the 25 percent of Republicans surveyed who said earlier this month they had not yet decided who to support.
Haynes said he thinks Romney's support in Arizona is due to the very factors that have placed him on the defensive elsewhere: He has a reputation as being more moderate than others.
"The Arizona electorate is increasingly moving to the center from an overall standpoint," he said. "As much as anything, it probably reflects that."
Less of a factor, Haynes said, is Romney being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He said if that drove the numbers, then former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman would have polled higher than 2 percent.
And, as it turns out, Arizona Republicans who might like Huntsman will not get a chance to express that support.
The Secretary of State's Office refused to accept his candidate papers because they did not contain an original notarized signature. And as of Friday - a day before the first early ballots were set to be printed - no lawsuit had been filed to appeal that decision.
Haynes also said that the survey results may reflect a belief by Republicans that they need to pick someone as the candidate, and soon.
"If the object of the Republicans is to put Barack Obama out of the White House, they're going to need to start rallying around somebody instead of slitting each other's throats every day,'' he said.
The poll of 553 registered voters shows that, at least in Arizona, Romney may be the GOP's best bet: When paired in test races against the incumbent, only Romney showed enough strength to take Arizona.
Conducted between Jan. 5 and 9, the survey has a margin of error of 7.1 percent looking just at the Republican vote, and 4.3 percent among all voters.
Arizona's presidential primary is set for Feb. 28, with early voting starting Feb. 2. Only Republicans can vote for GOP candidates; the Green Party is the only other one participating in the primary.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 3:16 pm on Fri, Jan 13, 2012.
Come on Howie Fischer....let the reader see.........ALL THE POLL RESULTS.
A reporter is ..."supposed" ....to provide the reader with all (ALL) the pertinent information in an article. Are we just .."supposed"...to take your word for it. Did you vet (do some background checking on who and what the Polling Entity was and did they have an "axe to grind" with the..........."RESULTS").
I am pretty sure that the Military Veterans at local Arizona VFW's and American Legion Halls weren't ........POLLED.
They would rather not vote at all then pander their American Vote to Mitt Romney, who dodged the Vietnam War Draft with 3 deferrments to go to Paris, France for 3 years at the height of theNam War for a Mormon Mission. French men smoke like chimneys and drink like fishes and swearing to the Heavens inbetween puffs and sips.......lol.
Juggernaut8000 posted at 1:39 pm on Fri, Jan 13, 2012.
Anyone who still believes in talking snakes and woman came from a mans rib is a fool and shouldn't be in office.