News-Press.com

Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are in a dead heat heading into Tuesday’s crucial Florida Republican presidential primary, a new poll shows.

Gingrich was favored by 35.46 percent compared to 35.08 percent for Romney — a difference of 0.38 percent — in the Dixie Strategies/The News-Press/First Coast News poll of 2,567 likely voters released Friday. Gingrich’s slender edge was well within the poll’s 1.93-percent margin of error. The survey was conducted between Monday and Wednesday.

The other two GOP candidates, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, lagged far behind. Santorum received 9.38 percent while Paul had 7.42 percent. Almost four percent of the respondents chose someone else and 8.74 percent said they were undecided.

The Dixie Strategies poll is good news for Gingrich, who trailed Romney by nine points in both the Quinnipiac and Sunshine State News polls released Friday.

Digging deeper, ex-Massachusetts governor Romney had the highest percentage of voters with a “very positive” opinion of him, with 29.06 percent compared to Gingrich’s 27.64 percent.

Expanding the results to include “very positive” and “somewhat positive,” Romney got 67.25 percent, to Gingrich’s 56.25. Santorum scored higher than Gingrich in overall positivity: 60.75 percent, though his “somewhat positive” was twice as high as his “very positive.” Texas representative Paul scored 31.46 percent combined.

Paul also has the highest percentage of voters who hold a negative view. Combining “somewhat” and “very” negative, Paul’s 58.38 percent is far more than Gingrich’s 37.2 percent, the next largest percentage among voters holding a negative opinion.

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