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Dayton
Business Journal...
Obama,
Romney all square in new Ohio
poll
By Jeff Bell
Staff reporter - Business First
Monday,
October 24, 2011
Ohio
Republicans may be on the Herman
Cain bandwagon, but they might also want to consider backing Mitt
Romney if
they hope to unseat President Barack Obama next year.
That’s
the picture painted in a new
poll by Public Policy Polling
, a
Democratic polling company in Raleigh, N.C. The survey of Ohio voters
showed Romney,
a former Massachusetts governor, in a dead heat with Obama, with each
candidate
getting 46 percent of support and 8 percent undecided.
Obama
would beat Cain, the former
Godfather’s Pizza CEO, by 48-45 percent. The president would also top
the rest
of the Republican field, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who trails
Obama
50-41 percent.
The
poll found Obama’s approval rating
in Ohio is 43 percent compared with 52 percent who don’t like the job
he is
doing.
Public
Policy Polling Director Tom
Jensen said in an e-mail that Obama’s numbers against Romney are
actually worse
than they look in the survey.
“Just
18 percent of the undecided
voters approve of the job (Obama’s) doing,” he said. “When those folks
make up
their minds, they’re not very likely to end up in Obama’s camp.”
Jensen
also said Romney has an
11-point advantage with independent voters, pulls 12 percent of
Democrats and
loses only 4 percent of Republicans to Obama.
Romney
is expected to visit Southwest
Ohio on Tuesday with a stop in Cincinnati.
As
for Cain, Public Policy Polling
found he is the only Republican candidate with a positive
“favorability” rating
– 41-37 percent – in Ohio.
“Cain’s
long-term viability for the
Republican nomination still seems questionable despite his current poll
standing,” Jensen said, “but these numbers suggest he might actually be
a
viable general election candidate.”
A
poll of Ohio Republicans released
last week showed Cain leading the way with 34 percent. Romney, 19
percent, and
former U.S. Congressman Newt Gingrich, 14 percent, were the only other
candidates with double-digit levels of support.
Read
this and other articles at Dayton
Business Journal
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