Romney Well-Positioned, Despite Voters' Attitudes About Mormons

By Steven Shepard  //  June 8, 2011 | 6:45 a.m.
Updated: June 10, 2011 | 7:40 a.m.

A new Quinnipiac University poll out early Wednesday confirms that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is both the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination next year and his party's most viable candidate in the general election.

Fully one quarter of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they would vote for Romney in the primary. The only other candidate to garner double-digit support is former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, with 15 percent. Businessman Herman Cain is third (9 percent), with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (8 percent) and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, (9 percent), close behind.

Romney runs closer than any other Republican matched against President Obama, trailing among registered voters, 47 percent to 41 percent. In an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Tuesday, Romney actually had a slight, three-point lead over Obama among registered voters.

Obama posts double-digit leads against Palin (53 percent to 36 percent), former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (48 percent to 34 percent) and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (48 percent to 36 percent).

Voters, however, are mixed on whether Obama deserves to be re-elected, with 46 percent saying he does deserve re-election and 48 percent saying he does not. That is down slightly from early May, when a narrow plurality of voters said he did deserve re-election in the wake of the death of Osama bin Laden.

The Quinnipiac poll also tested voters' attitudes about religion and presidential candidates. In a possible red flag for Romney, voters are less comfortable with a Mormon president than having a leader of any other faith, save for Islam. Just 35 percent of voters are "entirely comfortable" with a Mormon president, compared to 60 percent who say the same of a Roman Catholic leader, 55 percent of a Jewish chief executive and 43 percent of an evangelical Christian. Only 24 percent of voters say they are "entirely comfortable" with an atheist president. Overall, 45 percent of voters have a favorable impression of the Mormon faith, while 32 percent have an unfavorable opinion. Nearly half of voters -- 44 percent -- say Mormonism is "very different" from their own religion. Yet Romney remains the best-positioned Republican to win the Republican nomination, and the most likely to defeat Obama in November 2012, according to the poll. The poll was conducted May 31-June 6. Quinnipiac surveyed 1,946 registered voters, for a margin of error of +/- 2.2 percent. Results of the Republican primary ballot test are among 830 registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, for a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percent.

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