President 2012 MO GOP Poll Watch: Huckabee 29% Gingrich 19% Palin 14% Romney 13%

According to the latest PPP Poll.

Favorable Vs. Unfavorable:

• Mike Huckabee – 73% Vs. 12%
• Newt Gingrich – 53% Vs. 24%
• Sarah Palin – 63% Vs. 27%
• Mitt Romney – 47% Vs. 32%

Head to Head:

• Mike Huckabee – 29%
• Newt Gingrich – 19%
• Sarah Palin – 14%
• Mitt Romney – 13%

So, what does it all mean?

• Mike Huckabee continues to perform well and has been leading most of the polls lately. But, will Huck run?
• Sarah Palin again is plummeting downward in the polls, even with GOP voters
• Mitt Romney is the “Biggest Loser” here and it is questionable whether he can win the nomination unless he improves.

One thing these numbers do reinforce is the recent ABC/Washington Post poll that showed Palin’s numbers plummeting even with Republican voters. When we polled Missouri in December Palin was at 25%, so her 14% now represents an 11 point drop in her standing over the last three months. Also while the other GOP frontrunners have seen modest drops in their net favorability since our previous Missouri Republican poll- 5 points for Romney, 3 for Gingrich, and 2 for Huckabee- Palin has seen a much more dramatic 16 point decline from +52 in December at 72/20 to now +36 at 63/27. There’s no doubt that the already limited interest in a Presidential bid from her that Republican voters had is declining even further.

The other thing that’s striking in these numbers is how weak Romney is. In 2008 Huckabee got 32% here and his current 29% standing doesn’t represent much difference. But Romney pulled 29% here last time around and his 13% now means he’s lost more than half of his support. His albatross here, as we’re seeing in more and more of our GOP polling, is voters describing themselves as ‘very conservative.’ They’re the largest segment of the Republican electorate in Missouri at 41%, and only 10% of them want Romney as their candidate next year.