Poll: Cain tops 3-way race with Romney, Gingrich
CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.
In the Republican race for the presidential nomination, Newt Gingrich's support continues to slowly grow, and he is now tied with Mitt Romney for second place, while Herman Cain just edges both of them out for the top spot. Both Cain and Romney have lost support since late October.
In a new CBS News Poll, 61 percent of Republican primary voters say the sexual harassment accusations against Cain won't make any difference in their vote, but 30 percent say the charges make them less likely to back him, and that rises to 38 percent among women. Cain has lost support among women since last month - from 28 percent in October to 15 percent now. He has lost ground with conservatives and Tea Party supporters as well.
The field of Republican candidates now has three candidates within striking distance of each other at the top of the list: with 18 percent, Herman Cain is in the top spot, followed by Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich with 15% each. Support for both Cain and Romney has declined since late last month, and Gingrich is the only one of the top three whose support is steadily - if slowly - on the upswing.
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Cain has lost support among women since late October. Then, he led among women, garnering 28 percent of their support. Now, his support among women is just 15 percent. He has also lost ground with conservatives, from 30 percent to 23 percent now. And there has been some movement among Tea Party supporters as well; their support for Cain has declined from 32 percent to 19 percent. Romney has lost support among men, while Gingrich's support among that group has increased eight points.
Six in 10 Republican primary voters say the charges of sexual harassment against Cain make no difference to their vote. Still, 30 percent say the charges make them less likely to support him.
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Of self-identified Tea Party supporters 71 percent say the allegations make no difference, as do 67 percent of conservatives. This poll was being conducted as new, and more specific, allegations arose against Cain.
Among women, 38 percent say they are less likely to support Cain because of the allegations against him. Fifty-seven percent say that will make no difference in their vote. Just 23 percent of men say they are less likely to vote for Cain because of the harassment allegations.
Is Cain losing ground among GOP women?
Voters, overall, are following the story. Most say they have heard something about the harassment allegations, including 59 percent of Republican primary voters who have heard a lot.
Among Republican voters who have heard or read a lot about it, a majority still says the allegations won't impact their vote.
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On Saturday night, CBS News and National Journal will host a Republican presidential primary debate on national security and foreign policy from Spartanburg, S.C. -- watch on the CBS Television Network or here at CBSNews.com at 8 p.m. ET.
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This poll was conducted by telephone from November 6-10, 2011 among 1,182 adults nationwide. 1,029 interviews were conducted with registered voters and 382 with voters who said they plan to vote in a Republican primary. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones.
The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The margin of error for the sample of registered voters could be plus or minus three points and five points for the sample of Republican primary voters. The error for subgroups may be higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.
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The one thing I see is real people, yes real American people, supporting Ron Paul... Signs are everywhere, and all people are talking about on the internet and outside the main stream meida is Ron Paul... It's hard not to when he predicted the housing and financial crisis and the only candidate that understand the business cycle and how to restore our once great country...
All the neocons and Obama can do if wage more wars, continue to spend money we don't have and let the Fed run free printing trillions of dollars to bail out the banks/Wall St, while Americans are left holding all the debt...
Ron Paul 2012
and stop fabricating stories for your own greed.
382 voters... who SAID they PLAN to vote in a republican primary.
That's it.
382 voters who say they plan on voting in a republican primary is far from being a serious national poll... it's a joke.
Olivepolitics(com) created the realtime one-person, one-vote system used by CBS Nov 12 which received over 100,000 votes before crashing due to legitimate server overload. ?
The results as of 97,529 votes were Paul 28%, Perry 19%, Huntsman 13%, Gingrich 13%, Cain 13%, Romney 8%, Bachmann 3%, and Santorum 2%.
While previous network polls have relied on as little as 54 votes, the CBS Nov 12 poll results may represent truly significant participation.
They are Banging the WAR DRUMS, Yet that is WHAT RON PAUL is all about, Bringing home the Troops and getting out of the Countries that HATE US for out Foreign Policy and DRONING to death their Citizens.
The UN-FEDERAL Reserve which is not even RELATED to Our Federal Government is DESTROYING US. And Paul wants to either get Government control or flat get rid of it.
Allowing People to be FREE in the United States. Which we are NOT today.
Then for 30 Years, Paul has Morally STOOD his ground and not bowed to Political whims. So go ahead, Slam Paul all you want. Soon this SITE will be STATE CONTROLLED, Martial Law will be here and Cameras on ever corner, While they ask you for PAPERS to travel. The TSA making Road stops, At Schools as they turn into the GESTAPO of the USA.
Face it, They want total control of the People, And Ron Paul is way ahead of them.
Go ahead, Vote for those that are BIG BUSINESS, Start screaming NOW, 4 More Years, 4 More Years, If you want this continued Direction to continue. FOOLS!!!