Gallup Poll Shows Republicans Have No Favorite for John McCain Running Mate 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 4, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new Gallup poll shows no clear favorite among Republican voters as to which of several elected officials or others John McCain should choose as his running mate. Mike Huckabee tops the list of GOP hopefuls McCain beat and other top choices suggested as a potential vice-president but he doesn’t reach the 20 percent mark.
In an open-ended question, Gallup found 18 percent of Republicans favor Huckabee as McCain’s number two while another 15 percent want his fellow ex-governor Mitt Romney.
Condoleeza Rice, the only person who did not run for the Republican nomination to make the top six pulled in eight percent.
Fred Thompson received the support of four percent while two percent backed Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman.
Colin Powell, John Edwards, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich and Bill Richardson rounded out the list with one percent each.
Some 31 percent of Republicans couldn’t name anyone McCain should choose and another 5 percent had no opinion. Another 21 percent of respondents named another lesser-known person.
In notes accompanying the March 24-27 poll, Gallup indicated the results show no split between conservative and liberal Republicans as Huckabee, Romney and Rice make the top three among both subsets.
However, churchgoing Republicans were much more likely to name Huckabee and Romney (29 and 19 percent apiece) while Romney finished first and Huckabee third among non-churchgoing Republicans.
The poll shows there is no obvious first choice among Republican voters — just as the GOP was split during the primary election.
McCain is under pressure from the pro-life community to select a running mate who also opposes abortion. He will face either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, both of whom are strongly pro-abortion and will likely select pro-abortion running mates.
