Santorum Leads In Washington State

There has been a lot of discussion about the upcoming Republican primaries in Michigan and Arizona on February 28th, and the primaries to be held a week later on Super Tuesday, March 6th. But there is a caucus to be held between those dates. It is in the state of Washington on March 3rd. This caucus has been ignored up until now, even by me, because there was nothing in the news to indicate what was happening in Washington. Now there is.

Public Policy Polling has done their first survey in Washington. It indicates that Rick Santorum has a substantial lead (11 points) among Republicans in that state. And it looks like it will be hard for Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) to catch him. Numbers show that 69% of Republican voters view Santorum favorably while only 18% view him negatively. Those are much better numbers than Romney has (47% view him favorably and 42% view him negatively). Here are the current numbers:

PUBLIC POLICY POLLING (Washington)
Rick Santorum...............38%
Mitt Romney...............27%
Ron Paul...............15%
Newt Gingrich...............12%

Meanwhile, Michigan now looks like a toss-up, and the winner in that state's primary probably can't be predicted until the votes are counted on the night of February 28th. Two new polls have been released showing this volatility and unpredictability. One poll shows Santorum with a small lead, and the other has Romney with a small lead. Here are those numbers:

RASMUSSEN REPORTS (Michigan)
Rick Santorum...............38%
Mitt Romney...............34%
Ron Paul...............10%
Newt Gingrich...............9%
Other/Undecided...............9%

NBC NEWS/MARIST POLL (Michigan)
Mitt Romney...............37%
Rick Santorum...............35%
Ron Paul...............13%
Newt Gingrich...............8%
Other/Undecided...............7%

The NBC poll also surveyed voters in Arizona. That poll shows that Romney remains the favorite in that state (although his lead is not nearly as big there as it was a few weeks ago). Here are their Arizona numbers:

NBC NEWS/MARIST POLL (Arizona)
Mitt Romney...............43%
Rick Santorum...............27%
Newt Gingrich...............16%
Ron Paul...............11%
Undecided...............3%