Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, garnered 20 percent of the votes in a pre-New Hampshire Primary poll. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney slid 2 points to 33 percent of the votes in the final 7 News/Suffolk University poll. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is in third place with 13 percent of the votes.
“For the fifth day in a row, Mitt Romney has fallen in overnight tracking, but lack of movement by second place Ron Paul has insulated a likely Romney victory,” a press release from Suffolk University read. Mr. Romney also won a WMUR/UNH poll of likely New Hampshire Primary voters with 41 percent of the votes. The pre-New Hampshire Primary poll, released Sunday, found Mr. Paul in second place with 17 percent of the votes.
Mr. Paul also pulled in 20 percent of the votes in a 7 News/Suffolk University poll released Sunday. However, Mr. Romney had 35 percent of the votes. With only one day left before the New Hampshire Primary, Mr. Paul has limited time with which to improve his position in the Granite State. However, the difference between first and second place in Suffolk University’s daily tracking polls continues to be outside of the margin of error, which means that Mr. Paul is likely to finish in second place.
“Mitt Romney’s biggest asset is the large number of candidates in this group that are dividing up the remainder of the vote,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston, in a press release. “With just a 33 percent stake, he can control his destiny, so long as the others in his group continue to battle each other. So the more people in the group the merrier for Romney,” Mr. Paleologos added.
The 7 News/Suffolk University poll of 500 likely New Hampshire Primary voters was conducted on January 7th and January 8th. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
