LITTLE ROCK — Mitt Romney is still far ahead of the other Republican presidential candidates in Iowa, but Mike Huckabee is locked in a three-way tie for second place, according to a University of Iowa poll released Monday.
The Iowa caucuses, scheduled for Jan. 3, are the first test of the primary season.
Support for Huckabee grew from 2 percent in August to 12.8 percent in the Hawkeye Poll taken Oct. 17-24. That puts the former Arkansas governor in a statistical tie with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani (13.1 percent) and former senator Fred Thompson(11.4 percent) of Tennessee. Of the 285 likely caucusgoers surveyed, 36.2 percent backed former Massachusetts governor Romney.
On the Democratic side, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (28.9 percent) of New York and Barack Obama (26.6 percent) of Illinois opened a lead on former senator John Edwards (20 percent) of North Carolina. Edwards, despite spending most of his time in the state, slipped 6 points from August. Three hundred six Democrats were surveyed.
The margin of error was plus or minus 5.8 percentage points for Republicans and plus or minus 5.5 percentage points for Democrats.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 10/30/2007