Huckabee Passes Romney in Poll on 2012 GOP Presidential Contest

Mike Huckabee has overtaken Mitt Romney in (a way-too-early) survey of Republicans asking who they would support for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination if the primary was held today.

A CNN/Opinion Research poll, conducted April 9-11, had Huckabee leading Romney 24 percent to 20 percent. Last month, Romney had the lead by 22 percent to 17 percent.

Sarah Palin comes in third at 15 percent closely followed by Newt Gingrich at 14 percent. Texas Rep. Ron Paul gets 8 percent and everyone after that is in low single digits.

Palin was seen unfavorably in the poll by 55 percent compared to 39 percent who regarded her favorably. That was a big negative jump from January when 46 percent saw her unfavorably and 43 percent favorably.

Romney was seen favorably by 40 percent and unfavorably by 34 percent, with 12 percent saying they never heard of him and 14 percent undecided (only 2 percent never heard of Palin).

Huckabee's favorable-to-unfavorable ratio was 43 percent to 29 percent with 12 percent saying they had never heard of him and 16 percent undecided, while voters split evenly at 38 percent as far as Gingrich's favorables and unfavorables. Fourteen percent hadn't heard of Gingrich and 11 percent were undecided.

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