WISCONSINREPORT.COM (12/8/07) - Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama are the leaders in their respective primary races in Iowa according to a recent telephone poll. The Newsweek poll conducted Dec. 5-6 has Mike Huckabee opening up a wider lead on Mitt Romney on the GOP side and Barack Obama ahead of Hillary Clinton, with John Edwards several percentage points behind in third place. This survey used random-digit dial (RDD) telephone sample. Registration status is self-reported and includes those who plan to register to attend a caucus.

Registered voters were weighted as part of a larger sample of all Iowa adults, age
18+. Data are weighted so that sample demographics match Census Current Population Survey parameters for gender, age, education, race/ethnicity, geographic region and population density.

The telephone poll of 1,408 registered voters has an overall margin of error of 3 percentage points. The sample of 275 likely GOP caucus-goers has a margin of error of plus or minus 7 percentage points. The sample of 395 likely Dem caucus-goers has a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.

Republican respondents to the poll questions indicated that religion was not very important in their decision of the preference for Republican presidential candidate. They listed, in the order of most important to least important, candidate's views on economic issues, Iraq, immigration, views on health care and other domestic issues, abortion and same sex marriage. The candidate's religion was least important, according to those who took part in the survey.

The poll also showed that most Republicans did not think it necessary for Mitt Romney to give his "religion speech", and that most Republicans did not feel that Romney was trying to hide the fact that he was a Morman.

REPUBLICAN RESULTS

39 Mike Huckabee/Lean Huckabee
17 Mitt Romney/Lean Romney
10 Fred Thompson/Lean Thompson
9 Rudy Giuliani/Lean Giuliani
8 Ron Paul/Lean Paul
6 John McCain/Lean McCain
2 Tom Tancredo/Lean Tancredo
* Duncan Hunter/Lean Hunter
1 Other candidate/Lean other candidate
8 Undecided

DEMOCRATIC RESULTS

35 Barack Obama/Lean Obama
29 Hillary Clinton/Lean Clinton
18 John Edwards/Lean Edwards
9 Bill Richardson/Lean Richardson
4 Joe Biden/Lean Biden
* Dennis Kucinich/Lean Kucinich
* Chris Dodd/Lean Dodd
0 Other candidate/Lean other candidate
5 Total Undecided

91 percent of adults in the sample reported being registered or planning to register so they could attend a caucus. This poll was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.