Hotline says Rudy Giuliani's all-but-announced presidential campaign has already hired about 60 staffers and has more than a dozen major fundraising events planned for February. Team Giuliani also has hired the well-regarded Tarrance Group polling firm. Most interesting item from the Hotline article: a memo from Giuliani campaign strategy director Brent Seaborn about Giuliani's strength with Republican voters. Here's a snippet of that:
The Mayor also enjoys strong approval among white evangelical Christians (76%) and self-described conservative Republicans (82%).
In an even more recent poll, Gallup (Jan. 25-28, 2007) finds Mayor Giuliani also leads among Republicans on 7 of 10 key issues including terrorism, the economy, healthcare and fighting crime. He also leads on 11 of 15 key candidate attributes - including "better understands the problems faced by ordinary Americans", "would manage government more effectively" and what I believe to be the single most important factor - "is the stronger leader."
In sum, while we fully expect these polls to tighten in the months and weeks to come, Republican voters genuinely know and like Rudy Giuliani.
Giuliani is going to need to better than 76 percent among white evangelical Christians if he's going to win the general election, but if those numbers are accurate and if those numbers hold he ought to be considered the early front-runner for the Republican nomination.
Photo credit: Gothamist
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