Clinton Lead Shrinks in New Hampshire

Editor: Alan Gray, NewsBlaze

Reuters/c-Span/zogby New Hampshire Daily Tracking Poll

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire - Democrat Hillary Clinton holds a shrinking lead in New Hampshire three days before the state's presidential nominating contest, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Saturday.

Most of the polling in the four-day tracking survey was taken before the Iowa caucuses on Thursday, when Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee sailed to wins in the opening test of the presidential campaign.

In New Hampshire, Clinton's lead over Obama in the Democratic race shrunk slightly to four points, 32 percent to 28 percent. John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who finished second in Iowa, was in third place with 20 percent.

"Overall the numbers have not moved that much but there was the beginning of a post-Iowa bounce for Obama," pollster John Zogby said, expecting another gain tomorrow.

The rolling poll of 893 likely Democratic voters was taken Tuesday through Friday. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

New Hampshire's primary on Tuesday is the next battleground in the state-by-state process of choosing Democratic candidates for November's election to replace President George W. Bush.

The state is vital to efforts by Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, to revitalize her campaign after a disappointing showing in Iowa.

About 7 percent of Democrats remain undecided in the New Hampshire poll.

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

Independents, who can participate in either party's primary in New Hampshire, were vital to McCain's win in the state in 2000 but appear to be leaning toward Democrats this year, Zogby said.

"We're seeing about 40 percent of the Democratic vote coming from independents so far," he said.

Obama, who rode a wave of support for his outsider's message of change to the win in Iowa, leads the Democratic field among independents with 34 percent. Clinton, who would be the first woman president, was at 26 percent.

The rolling tracking poll will continue each day until New Hampshire's vote 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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