Clinton Holds Lead in New Hampshire, Four Days Before Vote: Tracking Poll

Editor: Alan Gray, NewsBlaze

Poll Taken Before Iowa Caucuses Finds Clinton Over Obama 32% to 26%

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire - Democrat Hillary Clinton leads in New Hampshire four days before the state's presidential nominating contest, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Friday.

The poll was taken before Iowa's caucuses on Thursday, when Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee easily captured the first big prizes in the state-by-state battle to choose candidates in November's presidential election.

In the New Hampshire poll, Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, led Illinois Sen. Obama 32 percent to 26 percent among likely voters in the state's Democratic primary. Former Sen. John Edwards, the runner-up in Iowa, was at 20 percent, and no other Democrat was in double digits.

"There will be an Iowa bounce in New Hampshire for Obama," pollster John Zogby said. "Clearly the burden here is going to be on Clinton to maintain the validity of her candidacy."

About 8 percent of Democrats remained undecided in the New Hampshire poll, leaving room for momentum swings even before the Iowa results were known.

The rolling poll of 960 likely Democratic voters was taken Monday through Thursday. The Democratic race had a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was at 7 percent, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich was at 3 percent, Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden was at 2 percent and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd was at 1 percent. Dodd and Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa results were announced.

Clinton had the most dedicated Democratic supporters in the poll, with 61 percent saying their support was very strong for the former first lady. Edwards and Obama had 57 percent of their supporters say their backing was very strong.

This time, the poll found 60 percent of New Hampshire's independents planned to vote in the Democratic primary, with 40 percent looking to the Republican contest.

Paul, the anti-war libertarian who has developed an intense group of grass-roots supporters, drew the most dedicated backing with 69 percent calling it very strong.

The rolling tracking poll will continue each day until New Hampshire's voting on Tuesday. In a rolling poll, the most recent day's results are added while the oldest day's results are dropped in order to track changing momentum.

Source: Reuters

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com

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