Voters out to beat Obama give Romney big IL edge

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Voters hunting a candidate who can defeat President Barack Obama and with the proper experience were giving Mitt Romney a huge advantage in Tuesday's Illinois presidential primary, according to preliminary results of an exit poll of voters. His lead was also being powered by robust margins from people worried about the economy and federal deficits.

Main challenger Rick Santorum was running strongly among people who want their contender to be a real conservative and to exhibit strong moral character, and with the most religiously driven voters. But Illinois only has modest proportions of such voters, narrowing Santorum's appeal.

Romney was getting the votes of 7 in 10 people seeking a candidate who can defeat Obama. Among states where voters have so far been polled, that proportion has only been surpassed in Massachusetts, where he was once governor, and Virginia, where he and Texas Rep. Ron Paul were the only competitors.

Romney was also getting 6 in 10 votes of people seeking the right experience. Combined with voters seeking a candidate who can best handle Obama, that gave Romney a forbidding lead among over half of those who showed up to cast ballots, the survey showed.

Romney, who has used his business background to cast himself as the candidate best equipped to create jobs and eliminate federal waste, led Santorum by nearly 20 percentage points among voters riveted on the economy and the federal deficit as top issues.

Santorum had nearly a 2-1 lead over Romney among voters saying that sharing religious beliefs with a candidate mattered greatly. Such voters, though, accounted for just shy of 1 in 4 voters, a slightly smaller share than average among states whose voters have so far been surveyed.

The former Pennsylvania senator was also getting around two-thirds of the votes of those seeking a real conservative and a contender with strong character. But such voters were comprising less than half the overall vote.

Though Santorum was leading among those considering themselves very conservative, Romney had a narrow lead with all conservatives and a strong advantage among moderates.

With Illinois voters ranking about average in terms of how conservative its Republicans are, a third voting Tuesday called Santorum too conservative. That was the highest portion of voters expressing that view in any of the six states so far where that question was asked.

The survey of 1,551 Illinois voters was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research. Interviews were conducted as voters left their polling places Tuesday at 35 randomly selected sites. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/voters-beat-obama-romney-big-il-edge-000340617.html

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