Poll: Santorum surges; Obama leads Republicans

WASHINGTON — A surging Rick Santorum is running even with Mitt Romney atop the Republican presidential field, but neither candidate is faring well against President Obama eight months before Americans vote, a new survey shows.

Mr. Obama tops 50 percent support when matched against each of the four GOP candidates and holds a significant lead over each of them, according to the Associated Press-GfK poll.

Republicans, meanwhile, are divided on whether they’d rather see Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, or Mr. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, capture the nomination, with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul lagging behind. It’s a troubling sign for the better-funded Mr. Romney as the GOP race heads toward crucial votes in his home state of Michigan, in Arizona and in an array of states on Super Tuesday, March 6.

“I’d pick Santorum, because it seems Romney may be waffling on a few issues and I’m not sure I trust him,” said Thomas Stehlin, 66, of St. Clair Shores, Mich. He thinks the Detroit-born son of a Michigan governor is facing a strong challenge from Mr. Santorum in his home state because of his tangled answers on the auto industry bailout.

Also, he says, there’s this: Mr. Romney, the self-described can-do turnaround artist of the corporate world and the troubled Salt Lake City Olympics, with his millions of dollars, has been unable to vanquish his political opponents.

“That may be the reason right there,” said Mr. Stehlin, a retired government worker and a Republican. “He spends lots of money, and he doesn’t get anywhere.”

Nationally, Republicans are evenly split between Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum. The poll found 33 percent would most like to see Mr. Santorum get the nomination, while 32 percent prefer Mr. Romney. Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Paul each had 15 percent support.

Mr. Romney’s fall from presumed front-runner to struggling establishment favorite has given his opponents an opening as he tries to expand his support. His Republican rivals have stepped in, claiming to be a more consistent conservative and viable opponent against Obama, and each of the last three AP-GfK polls has found a different contender battling Mr. Romney for the top spot. But Mr. Santorum, an abortion foe, has hit his stride at a key moment in the nomination contest.

Mr. Santorum’s spike comes as satisfaction with the field of candidates remains tepid and interest in the contest is cools. About 6 in 10 Republicans in the poll say they are satisfied with the people running for the nomination, stagnant since December and below the 66 percent that felt that way in October. Only 23 percent are strongly satisfied with the field and 4 in 10 said they are dissatisfied with the candidates running, the poll found. And deep interest in the race is slipping: Just 40 percent of Republicans say they have a great deal of interest in following the contest, compared with 48 percent in December.

“It seems like in the last month or so everything’s just chilled out,” said James Jackson of Fort Worth, Texas, a 40-year-old independent who leans Republican. “I just haven’t been following it lately.”

Mr. Santorum remains Mr. Romney’s biggest threat. He won GOP contests in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado, stunning the GOP establishment that Mr. Romney methodically has courted since his first bid for the GOP nomination in 2008. The poll suggested that more people are getting to know and like Mr. Santorum, with 44 percent of all adults saying they have a favorable impression of him, compared with 25 percent in December. The share with negative views has grown as well, with 42 percent having an unfavorable opinion of Mr. Santorum.

Among Republicans in that time period, Mr. Santorum has shot from 37 percent to 70 percent favorable.

There’s evidence that Mr. Santorum’s comments about social issues may not have hurt him so far among women.

Mr. Santorum has been unapologetic in his opposition to abortion and his concerns about working moms, women in combat and contraception — some of the many examples he cites while making the case that he would draw a clearer contrast than Mr. Romney against Mr. Obama.

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