Poll: Iowa GOP split between McCain and Paul wings

Iowa Republican caucus-goers are almost evenly split between the foreign policy views of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

A Bloomberg/Des Moines Register poll found that 45 percent of Iowa Republican caucus-goers think the U.S. should be quicker to intervene overseas “as John McCain suggests,” while 41 percent think it should be less interventionist “as Rand Paul suggests.”

{mosads}The two senators have clashed in public, while Paul’s less interventionist stance has drawn fire from a range of likely Republican presidential primary rivals, such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. 

The poll found a wide open Republican presidential field in Iowa. The previous cycle’s nominee, Mitt Romney, scored highest with 17 percent. Neurosurgeon and conservative star Ben Carson was second with 11 percent, while Paul was third, with 10 percent. No other candidate received double-digit support, but 2008 caucus winner Mike Huckabee, Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, followed, in that order. 

Christie, hurt by the controversy over lane closures at the George Washington Bridge, is the only leading candidate to have a higher unfavorable rating than favorable, at 45 to 39 percent.

Carson, despite being in second place, is less well-known, with 51 percent saying they do not know enough about him. Among those who do, though, he has a 41 to 8 percent favorable to unfavorable rating.

Ryan wins the favorability contest, at 75 percent.

Despite the death of immigration reform in Congress and the surge of unaccompanied children at the border over the summer, more Republican caucus-goers support a path to citizenship for those in the country illegally, at 45 percent, than oppose it, at 42 percent.