Poll: Newt Gingrich leads GOP field in Georgia

Mike Gallagher

Dec 18, 2011 - 15:53

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Poll: Newt Gingrich leads GOP field in Georgia

ATLANTA — Newt Gingrich leads the Republican presidential field in his former home state of Georgia, according to a new poll released Sunday.

The former House speaker leads Mitt Romney 43 percent to 21 percent among Georgia Republicans, according to the survey Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington for the Georgia Newspaper Partnership.

No other candidate drew double-digit support in the poll.

But the poll also found Romney, the former Massachusetts goveor, as a stronger general election candidate. The poll found both Romney and Gingrich are favored in matchups with Barack Obama, but Romney holds a larger lead over the Democratic president. Gingrich is favored 50 percent to 41 percent, with 9 percent undecided in a contest against Obama. In a Romney-Obama matchup, Romney wins 55 percent support to Obama's 38 percent, with 7 percent undecided.

Gingrich was a 10-term congressman from Georgia, resigning in 1999. He has lived in northe Virginia in recent years.

The poll shows Republican voters continue to express conce over the state of the economy with early half of all respondents saying jobs and the economy will be the key issues in choosing a candidate.

The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, D.C. from Dec. 12 through Dec. 14, and paid for by 13 daily newspapers with readership across Georgia.

For questions conceing the Republican primary, the survey interviewed 400 likely Republican primary voters and there was a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

For other questions, 625 likely voters were interviewed and the poll had a margin for error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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Online:

Athens Banner-Herald, www.onlineathens.com

The Atlanta Joual-Constitution, www.ajc.com

The Augusta Chronicle, www.augustachronicle.com

Chattanooga Times Free Press, www.timesfreepress.com

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, www.ledger-enquirer.com

The Daily Citizen, Dalton, http://daltondailycitizen.com

The Times, Gainesville, www.gainesvilletimes.com

Georgia Times-Union, Florida Times-Union, http://jacksonville.com/community/south_georgia

The Telegraph, Macon, www.macon.com