(Week of 3/31/2012) Governor Romney may be the Republican frontrunner, but he has an enthusiasm gap to make up: only 11% of GOP voters in this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll would be excited if Romney became the party’s nominee.
Although more GOP voters express satisfaction with a Romney nomination, there are substantial pockets of disagreement. Only 4% would be angry if Romney were their party’s nominee, but a third would be dissatisfied. Dissatisfied Republican voters appear across all political and demographic segments. 27% of GOP voters still want another candidate to enter the contest.
Although Romney has made some inroads with Republican voters (though 19% say they dislike him as a person), he still has image problems. A third of GOP voters have an unfavorable view of him. Most (60%) don’t view him as a conservative.
And a majority continues to think he more often says what people want to hear, not what we really believes.
In contrast, eight in ten GOP voters see Romney’s chief remaining competitor, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, as a conservative, and 67% think Santorum says what he really believes.
Economist/YouGov poll archives can be found here
Photo source: Press Association
