Santorum leaps ahead of Romney in Ohio voters poll

February 16, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS

Republican voters in Ohio have changed their minds again, this time siding with Rick Santorum in next month’s presidential primary.

The former Pennsylvania senator is the third Republican to top a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey in recent months.

But half of likely Republican primary voters say they still may change their mind before Election Day.

Santorum “appears to be riding the momentum from his victories last week in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a released statement. “Unclear is whether that momentum fizzles, as happened to Santorum in New Hampshire after winning Iowa, and as happened to Gov. Mitt Romney in South Carolina after winning New Hampshire and Speaker Newt Gingrich in Florida after taking South Carolina.”

Connecticut-based Quinnipiac regularly gauges Ohioans’ opinions of issue and candidates. Its latest survey findings have a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.

Santorum topped other GOP presidential hopefuls, with 36 percent of respondents supporting his candidacy versus 29 percent for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and 20 percent for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Romney topped the Quinnipiac poll last month, with 27 percent of voters backing his bid versus 18 percent for Santorum and 17 percent for Gingrich.

And Gingrich topped the field in December, with 36 percent versus 18 percent for Romney.

In the latest poll, Romney fared the best in a potential matchup with President Barack Obama, with the latter topping the former 46 percent to 44 percent.

Obama also outpaced Santorum (47 percent to 41 percent) and Gingrich (50 percent to 38 percent).