Romney Holds Small Lead Among New Hampshire GOP

The first presidential preference poll since the conclusion of the 2014 election has been released. It is the Bloomberg Politics / Saint Anselm Poll (done by Purple Insights between November 12th and 18th). Only New Hampshire voters were surveyed -- one of the first states that will make their choices known in 2016. The poll queried 407 Republican voters and 404 Democratic voters, and the margin of error for both groups was 4.9 points.

There is no real favorite among New Hampshire Republican, since no candidate comes anywhere close to the 50% mark. But many of those Republicans (30%) do prefer Mitt Romney, who was the governor of neighboring Massachusetts. When Romney is taken out of the mix (and he has not indicated he is interested in running again), three candidates lead but don't come close to that 30% of Romney. They are Rand Paul (16%), Chris Christie (16%), and Jeb Bush (14%). Everyone else is in single-digits.

It's a different matter for the Democrats. Hillary Clinton has 62% support and a huge lead over anyone else. Elizabeth Warren finishes in second with 13% -- a whopping 49 points behind Clinton (in spite of the fact she is also from neighboring Massachusetts). Any other possible candidates are in single-digits (including Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders).

Some on the left are still trying to get Warren or Sanders to enter the race against Clinton, but I fail to see what could be gained by that happening.