Pawlenty polling low in Minnesota 2012 matchup

Gov. Tim Pawlenty only garnered 19 percent of Minnesota GOP primary voters in a poll comparing contenders for president in 2012. While Pawlenty had the best showing of all candidates in the Public Policy Polling survey released on Thursday, he only led Sarah Palin by one point. The poll’s authors said that Pawlenty’s support with conservatives was very low and that his lackluster showing in his home state might be behind Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer’s underperformance during a GOP wave.

In Minnesota, Pawlenty led the pack at 19 percent, followed closely by Palin at 18 percent, Mike Huckabee at 14 percent and Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney at 11 percent each.

“These numbers are reflective of the overall trouble we found for Pawlenty at home in our final preelection poll of the state- his approval rating was under water and voters overwhelmingly said they didn’t think he should run for President,” the poll’s authors wrote. “Partially because of Pawlenty’s declining popularity Democrats seem to have picked up the Governor’s office there in an otherwise awful year for the party.”

PPP said it was Pawlenty’s weak performance with conservatives that led to lower numbers.

“Palin actually leads Pawlenty 20-18 with conservatives but the Governor leads overall thanks to a 27-10 advantage with moderates. It is no coincidence that Romney is in the basement in this state- we’ve found several places now that where Pawlenty is unusually strong the victim seems to be Romney because of a greater split in the vote among GOP centrists.”

PPP released numbers from six states on Wednesday that showed Pawlenty lagging in those states.