Tag: Newt Gingrich

A poll released by Latino Decisions — an organization that focuses on “states in which the Latino vote will play an important role in the 2012 elections” — shows that GOP presidential candidates have low recognition among Latino voters. According to the Latino Decisions poll released Monday, “none of the Republican presidential candidates has been able to captivate or attract the attention of Latinos until now. In other words, for the time being, among the eight candidates, there is no one equivalent to George W. Bush who would attract a significant percentage of the Latino vote.”

There is little doubt of the continued fluidity within the GOP field, and Iowa — as home to fiscal and social conservatives searching for an ideal candidate — remains one of the best places (if not the best) to ride the roller coaster of the 2012 Republican nomination and presidential election.

A poll released this week by Bloomberg shows Texas Governor Rick Perry with a small lead (26-22) over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, with no other candidate preferred by even 10 percent of Republicans. Perry, though, is viewed favorably by only three in ten Americans while being viewed unfavorably by four in ten. Perry, at this point, trails Obama 49-40 among all voters, according to the poll.

If there has been a single thread that has connected the previous 11 editions of The Iowa Independent’s Power Rankings, it has been an overall feeling of discontent among Republicans as activists in the state search for someone who represents their views and that they believe also stands a good chance of unseating Democratic incumbent Barack Obama. Today, that looks more and more like Rick Perry.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry — currently in the lead, according to Gallup, to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012 — signed (PDF) on Wednesday the Susan B. Anthony List’s controversial anti-abortion pledge.

As if to prove Colorado College political science professor Bob Loevy is correct when he says the current presidential nominating process gives too much power to fringe groups in small states, Rick Perry is riding a strong anti-science sentiment to the lead in Iowa polling. He also leads Republican contenders in Colorado.

“There is no majority in America that can be built on hypocrisy and inconsistency,” former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson said Friday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

A number of Republican presidential candidates are raising money for family policy councils, state-based religious-right groups affiliated with the Family Research Council, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center says is an anti-gay hate group.

Yet another Iowa poll of likely caucus-goers has shown Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann with a small lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Provided South Carolina’s GOP can raise enough money to host the coveted first-in-the-South GOP presidential primary, the state will significantly impact which Republican is nominated to face off with President Obama in 2012. A South Carolina conservative policy group, the Palmetto Family Council, has seized on this spotlight to communicate its top issues to the 2012 presidential contenders; issues the group has influenced in past state debates all while receiving federal money to aid their case.