Following decisively positive reviews of his Iowa Freedom Summit speech, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker now leads the latest poll of Iowa caucus voters. Interesting to note is the disconnect between Iowa polls specifically and the overall primary polling nationwide which shows Jeb Bush as the current leader. Not so in Iowa where Bush doesn’t top 8 percent.
Report from Bloomberg:
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is surging, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is an also-ran and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is dominating in a new poll of Iowans likely to vote in the nation’s first presidential nominating contest.
The Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, taken Monday through Thursday, shows Walker leading a wide-open Republican race with 15 percent, up from just 4 percent in the same poll in October. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was at 14 percent and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, stood at 10 percent. [Emphasis added]
Bush trailed with 8 percent and increasingly is viewed negatively by likely Republican caucus-goers. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is in even worse shape, with support from just 4 percent. More troubling for Christie: He’s viewed unfavorably by 54 percent, among the highest negative ratings in the potential field. At 9 percent, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson pulls more support than either Bush or Christie.
Granted he’s only leading Rand Paul by 1 percent so we’re well within the margin of error in a wide open field, but he’s moved up from 4% back in October to the leader as of today.
Also noted in the poll, Hillary Clinton leads handily in Iowa:
On the Democratic side, the race among potential candidates isn’t competitive. Clinton was the first choice of 56 percent. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has repeatedly said she isn’t running, stands second at 16 percent. Vice President Joe Biden had only about half as much support as Warren, with 9 percent.
Wipe Elizabeth Warren out of that mix and where do her supporters end up? Do they move to Hillary, Biden, or Bernie Sanders?
