Poll Shows Romney Maintains Commanding Lead In New Hampshire

(RTTNews) – While Republican presidential candidates Ron Paul and Rick Santorum have seen modest increases in support in New Hampshire following their strong showings in the Iowa caucuses, the latest Suffolk University/7News poll shows Mitt Romney holding on to a commanding lead in the Granite State.

The latest two-day tracking poll found that 41 percent of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters support Romney, the former Governor of neighboring Massachusetts, down just 2 percentage points from the previous poll.

Paul, a libertarian-leaning Texas Congressman, saw his level of support increase to 18 percent from 14 percent, but he remains a distant second.

Support for Santorum edged up to 8 percent from 6 percent, lifting the former Pennsylvania Senator into third place after he narrowly lost the Iowa caucuses to Romney.

Meanwhile, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich dropped into fourth place and is now tied with former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman at 7 percent.

Seventeen percent of likely New Hampshire primary voters said they remain undecided less than week ahead of the primary.

“This is the first full day that voters had the opportunity to digest the final results of the Iowa caucuses,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston. “The result is that the same three winners in Iowa are the top three contenders in New Hampshire.”

Despite the increase in support for Santorum, Paleologos noted that the remaining undecided voters may pose a problem for the hardcore social conservative.

“Only 29 percent of those undecided voters said that their values were similar to the tea party and only 36 percent of these undecided voters identified themselves as conservative,” Paleologos said.

The survey of 500 likely Republican primary voters was conducted January 3rd and 4th and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

by RTT Staff Writer