Mike Huckabee: Big in Alabama
He’s a theocrat who has said he wants to rewrite the Constitution to make it more like the Bible, he’s a creationist, a homophobe, a smiling Fox News host — and that makes him a perfect candidate for Alabama: Alabama poll: Mike Huckabee is 2012 front-runner.
In a reminder of his strength with social conservatives, Mike Huckabee leads his nearest GOP competitor by 10 percentage points, according to a new poll of Alabama Republicans.
Thirty-three percent of Alabama Republicans polled support the former Arkansas governor for the 2012 presidential nomination, while 23 percent said they would back Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee. The next closest Republican to Huckabee and Palin is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who takes 12 percent of the vote.
The survey, commissioned by a Montgomery-based public affairs company, is to be released Tuesday.
It illustrates the support Huckabee still enjoys among the sort of Christian conservative voters who dominate GOP primaries in the South. Even after he was thought to be out of the running in his 2008 bid for the Republican presidential nomination, the Arkansan won a slew of Southern states, including Alabama, on Super Tuesday.
I never thought the people of Alabama would support such a lousy bass player.
Also in the running — another theocrat, Judge Roy Moore, who wants to criminalize homosexuality and execute gay people.
Still, two years out from when the first votes will be cast in the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, the contest remains fluid. Twenty-four percent of Alabama Republicans said they were undecided on whom to support in the race.
They are equally uncertain about their nominee for governor this year. With Republican Gov. Bob Riley term-limited, the GOP field appears to be open. Bradley Byrne, a former state legislator who ran the state’s community college system under Riley, is the favorite among 20 percent of the likely primary voters, while former Judge Roy Moore, famous for his effort to keep the Ten Commandments in his courtroom, captures 17 percent. But 46 percent of those polled said they’re undecided four months before the state’s primary.
Moore is a favorite of social conservatives and leads Byrne 24 percent to 18 percent among those Republicans who call themselves “very conservative.”