A new poll shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leading Rick Santorum in the state Santorum represented in Congress for over a decade.
According to a Public Policy Polling (PPP) poll released late Wednesday night, Romney leads Santorum in Pennsylvania among likely Republican primary voters 42 percent to 37 percent. The last PPP poll taken in Pennsylvania nearly a month ago showed Santorum leading Romney by 18 points, 43 percent to 25 percent.
Santorum was a Pennsylvania congressman from 1991 to 1995 and represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2007. He lost his bid for re-election to the Senate to Democrat Bob Casey by 17 percentage points in 2006.
Though the poll shows that Santorum has a better favorability rating in Pennsylvania than Romney, 54 percent of those polled said they do not believe Santorum has a realistic chance of winning the Republican nomination. The poll also showed that 49 percent of Pennsylvanians believe that Romney would have a better chance of beating President Barack Obama in the general election, compared to only 24 percent for Santorum.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul came in third in the poll at 9 percent while former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich came in last at 6 percent.
Pennsylvania’s Republican presidential primary takes place on April 24.
Conducted on April 4, the poll has a 4.9 percent margin of error.