Bama GOP Hearts Newt

Via the Montgomery Advertiser’s South Union Street blog:  Gingrich surges in Alabama poll

Gingrich is clearly the frontrunner in the state, according to the poll, after surging from 5 percent in a poll conducted by the CSRC in August to almost 43 percent in the new poll.

Perry dropped from about 30 percent to 4 percent.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney dropped from 24 percent in August to about 14 percent in the latest poll.

h/t:  @kennysmith

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. David says:

    This does not surprise me. However, if someone would have told me in the late 90s that Gingrich was going to not only be in the running for the GOP nomination but actually be the front runner (who cares when they thought it was going to happen, just that it was going to happen), I would have staged an intervention or something.

  2. Kylopod says:

    @David: True, but if someone in 2000 had told me that eight years later McCain would get the GOP nomination only to be defeated in an electoral landslide by a black liberal law professor from Illinois with the middle name “Hussein,” that would have sounded even more bizarre.

  3. David says:

    @Kylopod: I agree, that would be my response in 2000 as well. But, I didn’t know who Obama was then. Newt was a known quantity. That difference is pretty significant in the comparison.

  4. JohnMcC says:

    In another example of the lack of historical awareness of so-called-conservatives, there has been an amazing silence about the way that Repubs themselves got rid of Mr Gingrich in ’98. He is the only Speaker ever to be actually fined ($300,000 I seem to recall, not a symbolic slap-on-the-wrist) and removed from the Speakership for blatant corruption.

    In another example of the lack of seriousness of so-called-conservatives, not one of the other candidates has mentioned his embarrassing past. Because then he would become a ‘victim’–which is the place most beloved by and empowering to Repubs.

  5. MBunge says:

    Honestly, I’ll get worked up over Newt’s behavior in the 90s when Condoleeza Rice is treated like a pariah for her role in getting thousands of Americans killed for no good reason.

    Mike

  6. Kylopod says:

    Another point of trivia about Newt’s legacy as Speaker: the 1998 midterms which led to his downfall were the first time in 166 years that the out-party to the White House had lost seats during the president’s second term.