RNC Members Love Romney

Published Mar 05 2007, 07:52 PM by David S. Bernstein

A new LA Times poll of Republican National Committee members and state Republican chairs has good news for Mitt Romney -- and perhaps a more meaningful glimpse into his standing within the party base than recent straw polls. These are the top insiders in the party structure. (Each state has one RNC committeeman and one committeewoman, as well as the state party chair.) They also are all "superdelegates" with votes at the '08 convention, assuming they retain their positions.

Romney leads the Presidential-preference question among these folks, with 20 percent. Giuliani is at 14%, McCain 10%, Gingrich 8%, Huckabee 4%. Just over a third had no preference.

Romney also has a tremendous favorable/unfavorable rating, at 83% favorable, 8% unfavorable. Giuliani is the same (83/10), but McCain is 56/38. Brownback's number's are not good. Huckabee's are, at 66/4 with 26% unaware and 4% not sure.

The survey also polled DNC members, who line up Clinton-Edward-Obama, but with very high favorables for all the major candidates. (Not much love for Dennis Kucinich, though.)