The Public Polling Policy (PPP) poll of voters in Michigan released Sunday night shows momentum in the Michigan Republican primary election shifting from Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum to rival Mitt Romney.
After leading Mr. Romney by 15 percent in last weekend’s Michigan PPP poll, Mr. Santorum garners 37 percent in the latest poll, trailed by Mr. Romney who finished with 33 percent.
Texas congressman Ron Paul sits in third place with 15 percent of the votes, trailed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 10 percent.
“The tightening over the last week is much more a function of Romney gaining than Santorum falling. Santorum’s favorability spread of 67/23 has seen no change since our last poll, and his share of the vote has dropped only 2 points from 39 (percent) to 37 (percent),” wrote the PPP pollsters.
The poll found that Mr. Romney’s opposition to the auto industry bailout and his feud with the labor union United Auto Workers is not hurting him with Republican voters in Michigan. A total of 34 percent of the voters polled said that they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who was opposed to the bailout, while 27 percent of the voters held a negative view of Mr. Romney’s opposition to the bailout.
However, Mr. Santorum did garner more votes from voters who identified themselves as labor union members in the poll. The former U.S. senator also continues to garner more support than his rivals from Tea Party Republicans and evangelical Christian voters in Michigan.
Although he has pledged to stay in the race through the Republican National Convention in August, the poll found that if Mr. Gingrich dropped out of the race, 45 percent of his votes would go towards Mr. Santorum. The former speaker’s presence in the race is helping Mr. Romney in Michigan.
“Rick Santorum continues to have the lead in Michigan, but momentum is now on Mitt Romney’s side,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “Romney’s supporters are also more committed than Santorum’s, so there’s reason to believe this could get even closer in the final week of the campaign.”
The tightening of the race in Michigan will increase the importance of the presidential debate in Arizona this Wednesday. The debate will not only give Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum a chance to directly engage each other, but it also gives voters in Michigan a chance to hear from Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Paul, as they have not been as aggressive as their front-running rivals in trying to court voters there.
The PPP poll was conducted between February 17th and February 19th among 602 likely primary voters in Michigan, with a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
