Since Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy on Sunday he has openely taken shots at former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Now, a new Rasmussen Report shows Romney has lost his front runner status as Perry pulled in a whopping 29 percent and Romney pulled in 18 percent. Bachmann came in a just 13 percent despite winning the Iowa Straw Poll Saturday.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary voters, taken Monday night, finds Perry with 29% support. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, earns 18% of the vote, while Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman who won the high-profile Ames Straw Poll in Iowa on Saturday, picks up 13%.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who was a close second to Bachmann on Saturday, has the support of nine percent (9%) of Likely Primary Voters, followed by Georgia businessman Herman Cain at six percent (6%) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with five percent (5%). Rick Santorum, former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and ex-Utah Governor Jon Huntsman each get one percent (1%) support, while Michigan Congressman Thaddeus McCotter comes in statistically at zero.
Sixteen percent (16%) of primary voters remain undecided. (To see survey question wording.
Mitt Romney is quite different from Perry on two important issues. Romney is a global warming sypathizer, Perry is not and has never given into the global warming/climate change myth. Romney is a gun control zealot who passed an assault rifle ban at the state level after the federal ban expired in 2004. Perry carries a pistol on a regular basis. Both have experience creating jobs, Perry as a governor, Romney as a businessman.
Let the games begin.