GOP Polls - Newt Gingrich takes clear lead in new surveys

GOP Polls - Newt Gingrich surges to the top

Several GOP polls reveal former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich emerging as the clear Republican frontrunner for the 2012 presidential race.

According to the latest NBC News-Marist polls, Gingrich has now opened up commanding leads in  two states that historically have played important roles in deciding the eventual Republican nominee - South Carolina and Florida.

Gingrich also leads by a wide margin in Iowa, the first state to vote in three weeks' time.

This week's The Hill Poll  also indicates that GOP and conservative voters view Gingrich as the better choice on a wide range of issues compared to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Fifty percent of self-identified Republican voters said that Gingrich would be better at making a wise decision in a crisis - only 32 percent opted for Romney. Conservative voters also favored Gingrich on the same item of the survey, 46 percent to 32 percent. On the question of who has a better all-around ability to lead the nation, both republicans and conservatives also favored Gingrich.

Similar trend has been found in an ABC/Washington Post poll of likely caucus-goers released Tuesday which shows Gingrich with 33 percent, up 15 points over Romney and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

The results of these new GOP polls have left veteran Republicans scratching their heads.

According to the Associated Press (AP), veteran Republicans "are trying to figure out why the former House speaker is supported by GOP voters who think he's not particularly honest and doesn't share their values. They're puzzled that Iowa evangelical Christians are flocking to a man who was unfaithful to two wives, paid $300,000 in House ethics fines and converted to Roman Catholicism."

"They're surprised that Republican voters say they value Gingrich's experience far more than that of his rivals. Gingrich's record of earning millions of dollars in the government influence business, after 20 years in Congress, seems to upend the notion that this election cycle is driven by tea partyers' hostility to Washington insiders." AP added.

GOP Polls: Newt Gingrich rocketing upwards in new surveys

GOP Polls: Gingrich gains numbers | Graph: PPP

Two new national polls of the Republican primary race released Monday show Newt Gingrich leaping to the top of 2012 field.

A Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey has the former House Speaker at 28 percent, Herman Cain at 25 percent, Mitt Romney at 18 percent and Rick Perry at 6 percent.

"Gingrich's lead caps an amazing comeback he's made over the last 5 months. In June his favorability nationally with Republican voters plummeted all the way to 36/49. Now he's at 68/23, representing a 58 point improvement in his spread since then. As recently as August Gingrich was mired in single digits at 7%, and even in September he was at just 10%. He's climbed 18 points in less than 2 months," PPP wrote.

Meanwhile, According to a CNN/Opinion Research poll, Gingrich now draws 22 percent of the vote to Romney’s 24 percent, Cain’s 14 percent and Rick Perry’s 12 percent. With overall sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points, the CNN poll had 1,036 adults Americans as respondents, including 480 Republicans and Independents who lean Republican, as well as 552 men and 514 women, questioned by telephone.

In the CNN poll, Gingrich’s favorable ratings among GOPers is 61%, to only 21% unfavorable - followed by Romney at 55%-27%, Cain at 47%-31%, Perry at 43%-37%, Bachmann at 41%-33%, Santorum at 30%-22%, and Huntsman at 19%-22%.

And in the PPP survey, Gingrich’s numbers are 68%-23%, compared to 57%-31% for Cain, 48%-39% for Romney, followed by Bachmann at 40%-41%, Perry at 35%-49%, and Paul at 31%-52%.