Former Arkansas-based Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, who only two months ago was garnering a meager 4 percent of the national vote for the Republican nomination for president, is now running neck and neck with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, reported Reuters.
Drawing a substantial amount of his support from conservative and evangelical voters, Huckabee erased an 18-point deficit and in a Reuters/Zogby poll released Wednesday pulled to within one point of Giuliani, 23 percent to 22 percent—well within the polls 4.8 percentage point margin of error.
Giuliani has led the field of Republican candidates in national polls for most of 2007. Just last month, he was on top with 33 percent of the vote.
“Huckabee is on a roll, he has gotten an enormous amount of publicity and he is doing very well with conservatives, who at least for now appear to have found a candidate,” pollster John Zogby told Reuters.
Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton saw her lead over challenger Barack Obama shrink from an 11-point advantage to eight percentage points in the same poll.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney dropped among Republicans to 16 percent, Fred Thompson won 13 percent and John McCain took 12 percent. [12-20-07]
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