Poll: U.S. Republican race wide open

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- There is no clearly defined front-runner in the U.S. Republican presidential race, a Washington Post-ABC News poll published Monday indicated.

While former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has about 32 percent support of 436 Republicans and GOP-leaning independents polled, other factors indicate the race is still wide open, the Post said.

The telephone poll conducted Oct. 29-Nov. 1 found most of Giuliani's supporters back his candidacy only "somewhat," and not since 1979 has the leading Republican hopeful had less than 40 percent support in similar polls in the November heading into an election year.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., trailed Giuliani by 14 points, and 17 points ahead of former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney scored 11 percent support and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had 9 percent support, the report said.

The margin of error in the poll was 5 percentage points, the Post said.