We Ask America: Romney 37%, Santorum 31% en Illinois

Fox Chicago:

The Republican race for president looks like a two-man contest in Illinois Thursday night.

Mitt Romney is ahead of Rick Santorum among Illinois Republicans, even after Santorum’s big victories in Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday. But Santorum is within striking distance for next Tuesday's primary.

An exclusive FOX Chicago News poll found a six point lead for Romney among those likely to vote in the March 20 presidential primary.

Romney had the support of 37% on Wednesday. Rick Santorum earned 31% of the vote.

Pollster We Ask America, based in Springfield, IL, contacted the 1,933 likely Republican voters who participated in our survey on Wednesday, accurate to within plus/minus 2.2 percentage points.

The third-largest group of voters chose Newt Gingrich at 14%, 12% were undecided and 8% voted for Ron Paul.

Despite all the recent focus on sexual reproductive issues, we found no gender gap, no difference between Republican men and women on these candidates.

Jobs and the economy were the issues at the forefront of voters’ minds during this poll. An overwhelming 60% of those called said these were the most important topics for their candidate to agree with their views.

The other choices were abortion, the right to bear arms, gay marriage, none of these choices, and al of these choices. The second largest group of voters chose all of these, at 26%.