GOP Polls: Newt Gingrich rocketing upwards in new surveys

GOP Polls: Gingrich gains numbers | Graph: PPP

Two new national polls of the Republican primary race released Monday show Newt Gingrich leaping to the top of 2012 field.

A Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey has the former House Speaker at 28 percent, Herman Cain at 25 percent, Mitt Romney at 18 percent and Rick Perry at 6 percent.

"Gingrich's lead caps an amazing comeback he's made over the last 5 months. In June his favorability nationally with Republican voters plummeted all the way to 36/49. Now he's at 68/23, representing a 58 point improvement in his spread since then. As recently as August Gingrich was mired in single digits at 7%, and even in September he was at just 10%. He's climbed 18 points in less than 2 months," PPP wrote.

Meanwhile, According to a CNN/Opinion Research poll, Gingrich now draws 22 percent of the vote to Romney’s 24 percent, Cain’s 14 percent and Rick Perry’s 12 percent. With overall sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points, the CNN poll had 1,036 adults Americans as respondents, including 480 Republicans and Independents who lean Republican, as well as 552 men and 514 women, questioned by telephone.

In the CNN poll, Gingrich’s favorable ratings among GOPers is 61%, to only 21% unfavorable - followed by Romney at 55%-27%, Cain at 47%-31%, Perry at 43%-37%, Bachmann at 41%-33%, Santorum at 30%-22%, and Huntsman at 19%-22%.

And in the PPP survey, Gingrich’s numbers are 68%-23%, compared to 57%-31% for Cain, 48%-39% for Romney, followed by Bachmann at 40%-41%, Perry at 35%-49%, and Paul at 31%-52%.