Today must be the day for PPP polls –  here is one on the GOP race for 2012 President.

• Mike Hucakbee – 18%
• Mitt Romney – 18%
• Newt Gingrich – 15%
• Sarah Palin – 14%
• Ron Paul – 8%
• Tim Pawlenty – 4%
• Mitch Daniels – 3%
• John Thune – 2%

But, it is a bad poll for Mitt Romney and a good one for Mike Huckabee (if Huck runs).

New Jersey may or may not end up being important to the Republican nomination process but either way this continues the trend in our recent 2012 polling…more good news for Huckabee, more bad news for Romney. If there’s anywhere that Romney should really be strong it’s the northeast but he’s polling ten points behind the 28% he got there in 2008. Huckabee’s peformance meanwhile shows strength for him outside his home base in the South and it’s ten points better than the 8% he got there last time around.

In addition to its geography New Jersey also ought to be a good state for Romney because it has one of the more moderate Republican electorates in the country. In most states we’ve been polling more than 70% of GOP primary voters describe themselves as conservatives but it’s only 60% in New Jersey. But Romney can’t take advantage of that because he’s in fourth place with conservatives at 14% behind Huckabee’s 21%, Gingrich’s 17%, and Palin’s 16%. Romney is indeed way up with moderates at 24% with no one else doing any better than 13%. But that’s only enough to balance out his poor performance with conservatives relative to Huckabee. Romney’s really in trouble for next year if he can’t do a lot to improve his standing with the right wing of the party over the course of 2011.

The full poll is here (Pdf)