Herman Cain Leads Georgia Poll; Gingrich a Distant Third

Long shot GOP hopeful Herman Cain holds a double-digit lead among Georgia voters, according to an InsiderAdvantage/WSB-TV poll released on Friday.

The former pizza executive and radio talk show host is favored by 26 percent of likely Republican voters in the state. Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who’s expected to announce her candidacy later this month, placed second in the survey of 407 voters with 13 percent, while former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who represented Georgia’s 6th district in Congress for twenty years before stepping down in early 1999, trailed in third place. Gingrich was favored by only 12 percent of the poll’s respondents.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin finished fourth with 11 percent, followed by Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, who was preferred by 10 percent of those surveyed.

Texas congressman Ron Paul, who placed a distant fourth in the state’s 2008 presidential primary, received only 1 percent in the InsiderAdvantage poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

“I’m not surprised with these results, given that Herman Cain has an evening talk show on WSB radio, which is one of the most influential radio stations in America. He is also appealing to GOP voters who are frustrated with the political status quo,” said InsideAdvantage CEO Matt Towery.

“Herman Cain’s performance does show two things,” Towery told WSB-TV’s Lori Geary. “One, there is a certain degree of hometown support for him, and secondly, there’s a degree of support from people who are disaffected and don’t want anything to do with politicians who held office.”