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What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls
Saturday, March 03, 2012 

Seven primaries, three caucuses. No wonder they call it Super Tuesday. Is it also Santorum’s last stand? 

Three of the states are gimmes as far as Mitt Romney’s concerned – Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia. Rick Santorum was miles ahead in Oklahoma less than two weeks ago. But back then he was also 18 points ahead in Ohio, probably the biggest prize of the day. Now the Buckeye State is a tossup - Santorum 33%, Mitt Romney 31%.  

Romney’s been surging since his wins this past Tuesday in the Arizona and Michigan primaries. The former Massachusetts governor now leads Santorum among Likely GOP Primary voters nationwide by a 40% to 24% margin.  This is Romney’s biggest lead to date and the highest level of support any GOP candidate has earned in regular surveying of the race. Two weeks earlier, it was Santorum 39%, Romney 27%. 

Rasmussen Reports will report new numbers out of Ohio on Monday to see if that surge is still evident.

The Republican primary in another of Tuesday’s states, Georgia, appears to be wrapped up already by native son Newt Gingrich. The former House speaker and one-time Georgia congressman earns 38% support to Romney’s 26% and Santorum’s 20%, with Texas Congressman Ron Paul trailing at seven percent (7%). But Santorum’s lost eight points from just over a week ago, while Romney’s gained six.  Perhaps more significantly, Romney’s moved into second place ahead of the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. 

As for the man they hope to replace, his job approval numbers as measured by the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll inched up further in February, continuing a trend first noted in January and last month resulting in his highest monthly approval index in one year. 

Helping the president out is the improved confidence in both groups measured in the Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes. 

However, Scott Rasmussen suggests in his latest syndicated column that none of the candidates is really connecting with the middle class because they live in a more affluent world and don’t share middle class concerns. 

The president holds modest leads over the top two Republican presidential hopefuls in Wisconsin. Most Wisconsin voters also approve of the job embattled Governor Scott Walker is doing and oppose the effort to recall him from office before the next election. 

Former Governor Tommy Thompson continues to be the strongest Republican contender for Wisconsin’s open U.S. Senate seat, now posting a double-digit lead over Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin. 

Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who won the 2010 special election to finish the term of the late Ted Kennedy, holds a modest lead over his expected Democrat challenger Elizabeth Warren – 49% to 44% - in the first Rasmussen Reports’ look at his 2012 reelection bid in the Bay State. 

Not that voters think much of the body Brown works in. Just 10% of Likely U.S. Voters now rate Congress’ performance as good or excellent. That’s the highest positive finding since last March, but 63% still think Congress is doing a poor job. Thirty-six percent (36%) of voters continue to believe most members of Congress are corrupt. Forty-one percent (41%) disagree and say most members are not corrupt, but 23% more aren’t sure. 

Voters overwhelmingly believe congressmen leave Washington, D.C. wealthier than when they got there and want the law to do something about it. In fact, 72% think members of Congress and senior government officials, during their time in office, should be banned from trading stocks, investing in real estate and pursuing all business activity that could be affected by government policy. 

Republicans remain slightly ahead of Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot. 

Unhappiness with Congress stems in part from its failure to tackle the government’s overaddiction to spending, as Scott Rasmussen explains in his new book, The People’s Money: How the American People Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt .  The nation’s politicians created the current budget crisis by pursuing their own agenda and ignoring voters, he argues. He then highlights solutions to the nation’s fiscal crisis that can be supported by voters. 

Most voters (64%) continue to believe that no government program should be exempt when it comes to budget cuts. Most also recognize that the United States is the world leader in defense spending, and nearly one-third think we spend too much. 

But a major partisan divide exists over whether government efforts to manage the economy do more harm than good. By a 46% to 26% margin, Democrats tend to believe that putting the government in charge helps the economy. Solid majorities of Republicans (66%) and those not affiliated with either of the major parties (57%) take the opposite view and think government efforts to manage the economy end up hurting the economy.

Yet even while most Americans don’t believe rising gas prices reflect actual market conditions, a majority says free market competition is better than government regulations at keeping prices down. Americans continue to believe strongly than the country needs to lessen its dependence on foreign oil, but again they tend to think free market solutions are the best way to achieve that goal. 

Americans recognize, too, that free isn’t free when it comes to government aid. While the political debate continues over mandated free contraception for women, most voters now oppose the idea of free health care for all Americans. Opposition is even higher if voters are required to change their current insurance coverage to a government plan to make that free health care possible. 

One-out-of-three Americans thinks letting people buy homes with no money down is good for the housing market, but most say the government should only back mortgages for those who can repay them.  Unchanged are the low opinions Americans have of government-backed mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 

Read this article with links at Rasmussen