Politics

Santorum ties Obama in Pennsylvania, poll finds

Steven Nelson Associate Editor
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Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum ties President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 matchup in his home state according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday.

The poll finds that Santorum — who lost his re-election bid in 2006 by 19 points — would garner 43 percent support to Obama’s 45 percent, within the poll’s 2.7 percentage-point margin of error.

Santorum has received minimal support in most national polls, but in Pennsylvania he is Republican voters’ second choice, after only Mitt Romney.

Romney leads the Republican field with 21 percent, followed by Santorum at 14 percent, Sarah Palin at 12 percent, Michele Bachmann at 11 percent, and Rick Perry at 8 percent.

President Obama would lose to Romney by two points, 44 percent to 42 percent, according to the poll. Bachmann and Perry would lose by eight percent and six percent, respectively. (RELATED: Santorum says he has no plans to fix his ‘Google problem’)

The former senator’s strong showing in the poll will likely come as a surprise, as his candidacy has been widely dismissed for both his vehement social conservatism and his low poll numbers.