Two new polls show Newt Gingrich narrowing the gap with Mitt Romney in Florida, one day ahead of that state’s crucial primary.
An InsiderAdvantage poll of likely GOP voters released Sunday night shows Romney in the lead with 36 percent support, ahead of Newt Gingrich with 31 percent.
Rick Santorum and Ron Paul tie for third place with 12 percent support each.
{mosads}”The race will be tighter than expected,” said InsiderAdvantage chief pollster Matt Towery, as reported by NewsMax.
A Public Policy Polling survey released Monday also shows Romney leading by single digits, with 39 percent support to Gingrich’s 32 percent.
In that poll, Santorum locks third place with 14 percent, followed by Paul at 11 percent.
The five- and seven-point margins suggest Gingrich is gaining momentum in the Sunshine State after multiple polls released Sunday showed Romney holding a double-digit lead.
A Quinnipiac poll, also released Monday, showed Romney with a 14-point lead over Gingrich, 43 percent to 29.
A Rasmussen poll on Sunday give Romney his biggest Florida lead, with 44 percent to Gingrich’s 28, while an NBC News/Marist survey showed Romney besting Gingrich 42 percent to 27. A poll conducted by three Florida newspapers also showed Romney with an 11-point lead with 42 percent of likely GOP voters to Gingrich’s 31 percent.
Gingrich began last week in Florida ahead in many polls after a late surge catapulted him to victory in the South Carolina primary. Since then, Romney has retaken the lead in Florida thanks to a barrage of ads attacking Gingrich’s record. Romney’s campaign and pro-Romney super-PACs have outspent Gingrich forces heavily in a state with multiple expensive media markets.
Romney has also deployed a number of high-profile surrogates who have blasted Gingrich’s tenure as Speaker, raising questions about his leadership and about a 1990s ethics probe.
Gingrich has attacked Romney as a “Massachusetts moderate” and suggested he will be unable to draw a clear conservative contrast with President Obama in a potential general-election match-up.
The PPP survey shows Gingrich leading Romney among many conservative voting groups. Gingrich wins evangelical voters by 37 percent to Romney’s 33, leads among Tea Partiers with 40 percent to Romney’s 33 percent and bests Romney among those who describe themselves as “very conservative” by 36 percent to 29.
Gingrich still faces long odds in the state, with many voters having already cast their ballots via absentee voting. Nevertheless, he cited the InsiderAdvantage poll during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and pledged a strong effort to win voters in the next 24 hours.
InsiderAdvantage surveyed 646 likely Republican voters on Jan. 29 and has a 3.8 point margin of error.
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PPP surveyed 733 likely GOP voters from Jan. 28-29 and has a 3.6 percent margin of error.
The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 539 likely Republican primary voters from Jan. 27-29 with a margin of error of +/- 4.2 percent.