Romney Leads Two New Polls in IL

It is a little over two weeks from when we in Maryland will be holding our own primary elections and like 2008 on the Democratic side, the presidential primary race on the Republican side will mean something.  But before we get to there, we have another primary election this upcoming Tuesday in Illinois and two new polls out today show Mitt Romney holding a mid-to-high single-digit lead over Rick Santorum.  We start with numbers out from the polling organization We Ask America.

PRESIDENT – ILLINOIS – GOP PRIMARY (WAA)
Mitt Romney 37%
Rick Santorum 31%
Newt Gingrich 14%
Ron Paul 8%

This poll was done for FOX Chicago News on March 14th among 1,933 likely primary voters and has a margin of error of +/- 2.2%.  Meanwhile, Rasmussen Reports put out their own poll that showed Romney up by a slightly higher margin.

PRESIDENT – ILLINOIS – GOP PRIMARY (Rasmussen)
Mitt Romney 41%
Rick Santorum 32%
Newt Gingrich 14%
Ron Paul 7%

This poll was done March 15th among 750 likely primary voters and has a margin of error of +/-4%. 

One benefit of this now extended primary season is we may get some polling shortly for the state of Maryland which hopefully will touch on some of the issues we will be (or likely be) seeing on the ballot this November such as Tuition Breaks for Illegal Immigrant and Same-Sex Marriage.