Poll: One Top Candidate Isn't Even Running
A recent Zogby poll asked voters to choose a candidate based only on a short biography — no names or colorful rhetoric — and to the pollsters’ surprise, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Ward Casscells had about as much support among GOP voters as Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson. If only he were in the race.
Zogby:
A Zogby International “blind bio” poll shows that renowned cardiologist Ward Casscells, a longtime conservative now serving as the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, is preferred by about as many Republican voters nationwide as Republican frontrunners Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson.
When likely voting respondents were given brief biographical descriptions of the top GOP candidates, along with the biography of Casscells, Giulani and Thompson each won 19% support, while Casscells won 18%. Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, won 13% support, while Arizona Sen. John McCain won 11% and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won 10%.
The survey, conducted Sept. 6-10, 2007, included 299 likely GOP voters nationwide, and carries a margin of error of 5.8 percentage points.