Posted by Mark Silva at 11:04 am CDT
The fundraising in the presidential campaign of 2008 may have grown highly competitive, but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York continues to hold a commanding lead among Democrats surveyed, the latest Gallup Poll shows.
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has nearly matched Clinton in the first round of party fundraising – each of them banking $25 million and up in just three months, demonstrating how competitive the junior senator from Illinois will be in the campaign ahead. But Clinton continues to hold a two-to-one advantage over Obama in polling among Democrats, with an advantage that the New York senator has held since the two staked claims to the race in January growing in the latest results from Gallup.
Clinton also announced an endorsement today: Geraldine Ferraro, who became the first woman to appear on a major party’s presidential ticket when she ran with Walter Mondale in 1984 and maintains that Clinton’s candidacy “can smash the ultimate glass ceiling once and for all…. And in doing so,’’ Ferraro said, “we will be electing the most qualified and experienced candidate for president.”
This is not a new allegiance: Clinton’s husband, the former president, had appointed Ferraro to lead the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1993, and she serves as a board member of the National Democratic Institute of International Affairs.
“No one has done more to pave the way for women running for office than Geraldine Ferraro,” Hillary Clinton said in a statement today. “She has been an inspiring leader, and I’m honored to have her support.”
But this isn’t the only support which Clinton claims today:
Clinton “remains the dominant presidential front-runner among Democrats nationally,’’ Gallup’s Frank Newport reports, with Clinton claiming “ twice the support as her nearest challenger,’’ Obama.
Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, and former Vice President Al Gore, who says he isn’t running, also are “bunched in second place’’ with Obama. But if Gore’s name is removed from the survey and his supporters' second-place choices are substituted, Clinton's lead becomes “even more dominant,” with Obama and Edwards tied far behind.
The survey conducted April 2-5 also shows that positions have held fairly steady since January.
“The trend for Obama has been relatively static,’’ Newport reports. “The Illinois senator ends up in this latest April poll essentially where he was last January; Obama gets exactly half of the vote given to Clinton.’’
Edwards has “held his own,’’ Newport notes – averaging 13 percent across five polls of Democrats, and 15 percent in the latest. “Unannounced candidate Gore’’ drew 14% of the Democrats surveyd in this poll.
These are the standings of the leading candidates and potential candidates among Democrats and independents leaning Democratic who were surveyed by Gallup this month (The sample of 491 people surveyed carries a possible margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points):
Clinton: 38 percent, compared with her standing of 29 percent in January.
Obama: 19 percent, compared with 18 percent in January.
Edwards: 13 percent, compared with 15 in January.
Gore: 14 percent, 13 in January.
Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark: 3 percent, 2 in January.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: 2 percent, 3 in January.
Delaware Sen. Joe Biden: 1 percent, 5 in January.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, below 1 percent, 1 in January.
No comments:
Post a Comment