Poll Shows John McCain Faces Tough Road in Gaining Conservative Support

MANASSAS, Va., Feb. 9  /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Richard A. Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, today released the results of a true random poll of 1,000 conservative activists attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. CPAC is the nation's largest annual gathering of conservatives, and was chosen by former Gov. Mitt Romney as the place where he announced his withdrawal from the GOP presidential race on Thursday.

The first question asked of the 1,000 conservative activists was:  "In your opinion, is Senator John McCain a true conservative?"

  The results:

  Yes               197  (19.7%)
  No                595  (59.5%)
  Undecided         208  (20.8%)




The second question was: "If Senator John McCain is the Republican nominee, I will ... "

  The results:

  299    29.9%    "strongly support McCain"
  279    27.9%    "I will vote for McCain, but do not expect to work or
                   contribute"
   35     3.5%    "I will vote for the Democratic nominee"
   90     9.0%    "I will vote for a conservative third party candidate if
                   one is on the ballot in my state"
   40     4.0%    "I will not vote"
  257    25.7%    "I am undecided at this time-I need to see if Senator
                   McCain reaches out to conservatives in a serious and
                   meaningful way"




"From these results, it is clear that Senator McCain has a challenge in gaining the conservative support he needs in order to win the general election," says David Franke of ConservativeHQ.com. "Only 3 in 10 conservative activists strongly support him. Even if you add in the people who will limit their activity to voting for him, and all of the undecided conservatives (not likely), he will have only 83.5% of the conservative vote. Historically, the Republican presidential candidate needs more than 80% of the conservative vote in order to win. The poll results show he can possibly reach that level of conservative support, but it will be dauntingly hard."

NOTE TO EDITORS:  Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, pioneered ideological and political direct mail and has been called "the funding father of the conservative movement" for his role in helping build dozens of conservative organizations.  He is the author of Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books, 2006).

  Richard A. Viguerie                Weekend contact:
  ConservativeHQ.com                 David Franke (703) 396-6949
  9625 Surveyor Court, Suite 400     or (703) 369-3907
  Manassas, Virginia 20110           Contacts starting Monday, Feb. 11:
                                     Bob Sturm (703) 307-8176 (days) or
                                     Vi Shields (703) 906-6542 after 6 PM ET


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