Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker leads a host of potential 2016 GOP presidential contenders in a new poll in the early presidential state of New Hampshire out Wednesday.
Mr. Walker leads the NH1 automated poll, conducted Feb. 2-3, with 21.2 percent of the vote, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 14.4 percent, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky at 8.3 percent, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 8.2 percent.
Mr. Walker managed to ride a well-received performance at last month’s “Iowa Freedom Summit” into a place atop a recent Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll in the Hawkeye State among like caucus-goers there. He is scheduled to attend a GOP event in New Hampshire next month.
A NH1 “pulse poll” taken two weeks ago, prior to 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s announcement that he would not run for president in 2016, had Mr. Romney well ahead at 29 percent, with Mr. Bush at 11 percent and Mr. Walker at 8 percent.
In the poll out Wednesday, which was conducted by REACH Communications, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was next at 7 percent, followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 6.8 percent and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida at 5.4 percent.
Next was Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at 3.3 percent, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 2.7 percent, former New York Gov. George Pataki at 2.2 percent, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina at 1.7 percent.
Among the names left out of the survey were former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who are also weighing presidential bids.
About 19 percent of the 1,012 voters were undecided or wanted someone else.
The poll included registered Republicans and undeclared voters that lean Republican and are likely to vote in the 2016 GOP primary, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.08 points.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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