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Polls: Romney leading Gingrich in Florida

A poll of Florida Republicans shows Mitt Romney leading Newt Gingrich by 11 percentage points Sunday in the run-up to Tuesday's primary. Romney campaigned Friday at the Hispanic Leadership Network conference at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. UPI/Michael Bush
A poll of Florida Republicans shows Mitt Romney leading Newt Gingrich by 11 percentage points Sunday in the run-up to Tuesday's primary. Romney campaigned Friday at the Hispanic Leadership Network conference at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. UPI/Michael Bush | License Photo

MIAMI, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Two polls indicate Mitt Romney pulling away from Newt Gingrich in Florida's Republican presidential primary.

An NBC/Marist poll prior to Tuesday's voting indicates Romney leading Gingrich by 15 points, 42 percent to 27 percent. Rick Santorum was third with 16 percent; Ron Paul fourth with 11 percent. Four percent said they were undecided.

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The poll has Romney leading Gingrich and the rest in many subgroups, racking up 52 percent of those who are not Tea Party supporters.

The gender gap was particularly wide, NBC said, with women saying they prefer Romney 47 percent to 26 percent over Gingrich. Romney also leads among men, 38 percent to 29 percent.

The survey of 3,141 adults was conducted Wednesday through Friday by telephone. The margins of error varied by subset: 1.8 percent for all adults, 1.9 percent for registered voters and 3.2 percent for registered Republicans.

Meanwhile, The Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald/Tampa Bay Times poll of 800 Republican voters gave Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, 42 percent support over Gingrich, the former House speaker, who polled 31 percent support.

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Neither Rick Santorum nor Ron Paul campaigned much in Florida, the country's largest swing state. Santorum, former House member and senator for Pennsylvania, received 14 percent support while Paul, a Texas congressman, got 6 percent.

Florida holds 50 of the 1,144 delegates needed in the vote for the Republican presidential nominee at this summer's convention in Tampa.

Mason Dixon Research & Associates conducted the telephone poll Tuesday through Thursday. Pollster Brad Coker told the Herald the popularity spread was significant.

"What does Gingrich need to do? I would say Romney would need to implode," he said. "If there's no 11th hour surprise, this race is looking right now like it's over."

As many as 2 million Republicans are expected to vote, with some 500,000 ballots already cast in early voting, the report said.

The poll's margin of error is 4.5 percentage points, the newspaper said.

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