Poll: Romney is choice for GOP presidential candidate

November 28, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS

Gov. John Kasich wasn’t much of a factor among potential Republican presidential candidates in an early poll of contenders in 2016.

Nine of 15 possible candidates had higher results than the governor in the survey of 1,623 registered voters nationally questioned by the Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, which regularly gauges Ohioans’ opinions of candidates and issues.

The sample included 707 Republicans and 610 Democrats, and results had a margin of error of about 4 percentage points.

Former Massachusetts Gov. and 2012 nominee Mitt Romney led the pack, with 19 percent of respondents picking him for 2016.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was second with 11 percent. No other potential Republican candidate managed double-digit support, though two were close — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and author and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson both managed 8 percent. Kasich ended up with 2 percent.

Sixteen percent of respondents didn’t have a pick.

“Remember Mitt? Republicans still have Gov. Mitt Romney top of mind and top of the heap in the potential race for the top job,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a released statement. “But Jeb Bush looms large in second place. With New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie also in the mix, it looks like Republican voters are favoring more moderate choices for 2016.”

Among other results, a majority of survey respondents said that they would pick Hillary Clinton in a Democratic primary for president, that they disapproved of the way Republicans and Democrats in Congress were handling their jobs and that they trusted the government in Washington “some of the time” or “hardly ever.”