NPR: Obama Utah Coup Less Likely; McCain Up in Polls

Obama Utah Coup Less Likely; McCain Up in Polls

John McCain stops in Utah Thursday to raise money in an overwhelmingly Republican state that hasn't been entirely friendly to the presumptive Republican nominee.

As we noted March 7 (2008 Headline: Utah Goes for Obama?!?!), it once looked like Democrat Barack Obama would challenge McCain in a November election match-up in Utah. A March poll by the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University had McCain leading Obama by just 10 points in a hypothetical presidential contest

Another March survey by the Deseret Morning News/KSL TV had McCain with just 30 per cent support among those polled. That's a political oddity in a state where some local Democratic candidates don't even pretend they can win and the entire Senate Democratic caucus could meet in a Starbucks and still leave plenty of empty seats.

Why wasn't John McCain embraced more enthusiastically? Well, he was one of the fiercest critics of federal spending for Salt Lake City's cherished 2002 Winter Olympics. And he's perceived as a spoiler in Mitt Romney's failed bid for the Republican nomination.

Romney is Mormon and so are most Utah politicians and voters. He won the Utah Republican primary with more than 90 percent of the vote. McCain helped Mike Huckabee defeat Romney in West Virginia by giving his convention delegates to the Arkansas evangelical, who also mobilized other evangelicals against Romney.

But time begins to heal all wounds. McCain's Utah fundraiser comes as a new poll indicates McCain's gaining wider acceptance among Utah Republicans. The latest Deseret Morning News/KSL TV survey has McCain's support up to 54 percent of those surveyed.

Pollster Dan Jones told the Deseret Morning News, "Obama is losing some of the glamour he once had, so today it's not as close as it once was between Obama and McCain."

Utah Democrats are still hopeful. The newspaper quotes Nikki Norton, a Utah organizer for the Obama campaign, who says she's surprised McCain isn't doing better in a state sometimes considered the most Republican in the nation. "I think Republicans should be concerned about that," Norton said. "It shows that Utahns are not necessarily that committed (to McCain)."

McCain hopes to raise $375,000 at a luncheon and reception in Salt Lake City. That would bring his Utah contributions to just over $500,000. Mitt Romney raised close to $6 million in Utah.

-- Howard Berkes

2:20 PM ET | 03-26-2008 | permalink

Comments

I think it's generally too soon to talk about what might happen in November by what's polling in March.

Sent by Whatever happened to Super Tuesday? | 2:58 PM ET | 03-26-2008

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