Politics

Romney maintains Iowa lead though trailing in national Republican polls

By Times Wires
Published October 9, 2007

Campaign 2008

Mitt Romney is still the Republican to beat in Iowa, a poll released Monday by the Des Moines Register shows. Romney has campaigned extensively in Iowa and has aired a steady stream of television ads. Since entering the race in September, Fred Thompson has edged into second place. Rudy Giuliani leads in national polls but is vying for third place with Mike Huckabee and John McCain in Iowa. Huckabee's standing has increased since winning the Iowa straw poll in August.

The numbers in percent

Mitt Romney, 29

Fred Thompson, 18

Mike Huckabee, 12

Rudy Giuliani, 11

John McCain, 7

Tom Tancredo, 5

Ron Paul, 4

Sam Brownback, 2

Alan Keyes, 2

Duncan Hunter, 1

The telephone poll was conducted Oct. 1-3 of 405 registered voters who said they would definitely or probably attend the Republican caucuses. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

Also Monday

Republican Tom Tancredo said Monday that his campaign will be "pretty much over with" unless he can finish in the top three in either the New Hampshire or Iowa primary contests. Then, he says he'll decide whether to seek re-election to the House. "It's a decision made based upon the people who give you money," he said. "At a certain point, they stop because they say this just isn't going to work."

Democrat John Edwards, asked about a belief among some that a Clinton nomination is inevitable, brushed the idea aside. "I lived through the inevitably of Howard Dean," he said.Dean was the front-runner in polls and fundraising in the 2004 election cycle before finishing third in the Iowa caucuses behind John Kerry and Edwards.

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, campaigning in Iowa, declared "this economy just isn't working for middle-class Americans anymore," delivering an old-fashioned populist slam of the Bush administration's fiscal and social policies, saying they've accelerated job losses, increased income inequality and hurt the housing market.

Democrat Barack Obama, campaigning in New Hampshire, rolled out an ambitious energy plan aimed at curbing greenhouse gases and reducing dependence on foreign oil. His campaign billed the plan as "visionary," although some planks resemble proposals that Clinton introduced earlier.

No endorsement: The Service Employees International Union said Monday it won't pick a national candidate for the primary elections, underscoring divisions that had been apparent among SEIU supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama. "Any one of these candidates would help create a new American dream for workers and their families," SEIU Secretary Treasurer Anna Burger said.

[Last modified October 8, 2007, 23:32:48]