Poll: Romney still leading the pack

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney watches a baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox, Wednesday, June 15, 2011, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

A Public Policy Polling poll released Thursday shows Romney continuing to hold his lead over the Republican field in a nationwide survey, even on a trial heat ballot with so-called Republican fantasy candidates like Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, and Jeb Bush.

The poll surveyed 544 usual Republican primary voters nationwide, using an automated phone survey over the period between June 9 and June 12. That means that the results pre-date the debate on Monday in New Hampshire, of which Romney and Bachmann were declared the big winners. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4.2 percent.

Romney leads the pack with 22 percent of the vote. Herman Cain is his closest competitor with 17 percent, followed closely by Sarah Palin, with 15 percent. Pawlenty, despite being lumped in with Romney as a ‘first-tier’ candidate by most observers, fails to break double digits, tying the embattled Newt Gingrich with 9 percent of the vote. Bachmann trails with 8 percent and Ron Paul with 7 percent. Huntsman gets only 1 percent of the vote.

The rankings don’t shift substantially without Palin in the race. Romney retains his lead with 27 percent of the vote, followed by Herman Cain with 20 percent. Bachmann is in third with 13 percent, followed by Gingrich with 12, and Pawlenty with 10.

Republicans are still holding out for more contenders, and as an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday found, Republicans have mixed feelings on the field of candidates: 45 percent say they are dissatisfied with the field, an equal percentage said they were satisfied.

The rankings among the Republican contenders are fairly consistent with the NBC/WSJ poll, which found Romney leading with 30 percent of the vote, followed by Sarah Palin with 14 percent and Cain with 12 percent. One difference, however, is that NBC/WSJ included Rick Perry and Rick Santorum on the ballot, whereas PPP did not. PPP also conducts surveys using robo-calls, while NBC/WSJ results are based on live phone interviews. (POLLS AGREE: Romney leads NBC/WSJ poll as well)

That makes it interesting that Romney remains at the top of the pack on a ballot that includes him, Bachmann and Pawlenty, but also fantasy candidates like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, and Paul Ryan. All of those people, except Giuliani, have adamantly denied that they will run, though they have not successfully managed to squelch hope among Republicans.

In that line up, Christie and Romney are virtually tied – Christie with 18 percent of the vote, Romney with 17 percent. Sarah Palin retains a second place spot with 13 percent of the vote, followed by Bush and Giuliani, with 11 percent of the vote. Paul Ryan and Pawlenty fall into last place with 6 percent of the vote each, behind Bachmann.

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