A new poll finds Jacksonville, an important bastion of Republican support for statewide races in Florida, likes Mitt Romney but is not so fond of Ron Paul, as the Republican presidential candidates line up.
A poll from Dixie Strategies taken on behalf of First Coast News found that former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts was leading the pack of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 in Jacksonville -- good news for his many prominent backers on the First Coast including Sen. John Thrasher. Thrasher had backed Romney’s 2008 efforts and Romney helped kick off Thrasher’s bid for re-election in 2010.
Romney took 24.3 percent of the poll followed by former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas who took second with 17.1 percent. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Jacksonville won the backing of 15.1 percent of those surveyed. The rest of the field trailed with single digits. Donald Trump stood at 7.6 percent, Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio -- who has expressed no interest in running -- took 6.8 percent and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska stood in sixth place in Jacksonville with 6.4 percent. Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota took 3.2 percent, followed by two members of Congress -- U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, also of Minnesota, at 2.0 percent and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul at 1.2 percent.
The poll of 1,039 likely voters was taken on May 4-5 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.04 percent.
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