Thompson Takes Lead In Georgia; Clinton Remains Atop Democratic Pack

(7/16/07) Former Sen. Fred Thompson now leads the Republican presidential pack in Georgia and Sen. Hillary Clinton continues to lead among Democratic presidential candidates in the Peach State.

The findings are based on the latest InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion survey, which included 400 registered Georgia voters who said they would vote in a Republican presidential primary if it were held today, along with 400 registered Georgia voters who said they would vote in a Democratic primary if it were held today.

The surveys were conducted June 12-14 and were weighted for age, race, and gender. The margin of error is plus or minus 5%.

(The full poll and cross tabs are available here in Adobe Acrobat format.)

The Results:

Republican presidential primary:

(Fred) Thompson: 36%
Giuliani: 22%
McCain: 10%
Romney: 9%
Huckabee: 7%
Gilmore*: 2%
Brownback: 1%
Others: 1%
Undecided: 12%

* Poll conducted prior to Gilmore announcement of leaving the race.

Democratic presidential primary:

Clinton: 35%
Obama: 27%
Edwards: 16%
Biden: 3%
Richardson: 3%
Kucinich: 1%
Others: 1%
Undecided: 15%

Matt Towery, CEO of InsiderAdvantage (publisher of the Southern political Report and nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate out of Los Angeles) on the two polls:

“Thompson takes his lead by capturing nearly 50 percent of the male respondents. This group tends to be the more conservative segment of the GOP vote. Giuliani still leads among female Republicans in Georgia, but Thompson is not far behind. We will have to see if this huge surge in male support is tied to a regional affinity for the candidate, or represents something that goes beyond the South.”

“Clinton has nearly twice the support of females to that of her next closest rival, Obama. And among males she is statistically tied with Edwards and Obama. Clinton remains about as strong as she was in our last poll of Georgia conducted several months ago.”