Cain top choice in new ISU/Gazette/KCRG Poll, but voters have not made up their minds
11-17-11
AMES, Iowa — With fewer than two months before the Iowa Caucuses, a new Iowa State University/Gazette/KCRG poll of 1,256 registered Iowa voters finds Herman Cain leading Republican presidential candidates among likely caucus goers, with Ron Paul second. However, the poll also suggests that voters are waiting to make up their minds.
Cain (24.5 percent) is more than four percentage points ahead of Paul (20.4), with Mitt Romney (16.3 percent) being the only other candidate receiving more support than "Can’t Decide" (8.1 percent). Cain’s lead over Paul is within the poll’s margin of error at plus or minus 5 percent.
"Neither Romney nor Cain have spent much time in the state, and yet they’re among the top tier," said James McCormick, professor and chair of political science at Iowa State, who is coordinating the poll. "And contrast that with Santorum, who visited all 99 counties; and Bachmann, who repeatedly talks about being born in Iowa and has spent a lot of time here, and they’re down in the single digit percentages.
"So it suggests that maybe this time is different and that retail politics — typically a hallmark of Iowa — is not the way the caucuses are going to be decided this year," he continued.
http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2011/nov/ISUpoll
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/elections/
American Report 