Presidential race looks up for grabs in Utah

With "favorite son" Mitt Romney no longer an option, who will Utahns vote for in November?

Only 30 percent of Utahns polled in a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV survey Thursday said they'd vote for the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

And nearly as many, 25 percent, said they would cast their ballot for a Democrat, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Eleven percent said their choice was another Democrat, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The other Republicans still in the race, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, had only minimal support — 3 percent for Paul, a onetime Libertarian candidate for president, and just 2 percent for Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister.

Nearly one-fourth of respondents said they did not know who they would vote for if the election were held today. The statewide poll of 406 Utahns was taken Thursday by Dan Jones & Associates and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

"I think people today are upset with McCain," pollster Dan Jones said. "He's got his work cut out for him, even in Utah. If the Democratic nominee is Barack Obama, it's going to be a real race in Utah."

Utahns really don't like Huckabee, Jones said, because of the questions he's raised about Romney's Mormon beliefs. "They really felt he's the one who brought up the religious issue, about Romney's religion, and he was constantly negative," Jones said.

Huckabee angered many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by asking in a New York Times interview whether church members believe Jesus and the devil are brothers.

Jones said that if McCain chooses Huckabee to be his running mate, Democrats would have an even better chance in November of winning what is traditionally one of the nation's most Republican states.

Republicans can't take Utah for granted, Jones said. Republicans are "starting to be enamored with Obama," he said. "Obama's come up with a lot of exciting statements and has an ecclesiastical style and a lot of charisma."

McCain, already the party's front-runner after Super Tuesday, all but secured the GOP nomination after Romney, who ran the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, announced earlier Thursday he was dropping out of the race.

Romney won the state's Republican primary on Tuesday with a whopping 90 percent of the vote. But after Super Tuesday, McCain still had some 60 percent of the delegates nationally needed to secure the Republican nomination — more than twice as many as Romney.

Obama was also a winner in Utah, with 57 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary.

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E-mail: lisa@desnews.com

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