Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon, topped a straw poll among thousands of Christian conservatives gathered at a summit on Saturday and who could be an important element in gaining the party's nomination for 2008.
The views of social conservatives, often a crucial voting bloc in the Republican Party, seemed to differ widely from national polls of party voters that have given former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani a wide lead.
Giuliani was picked by less than 2 per cent of the 5,775 people who took part in a straw poll at the "Values Voters" summit in Washington Saturday. A national CNN poll of Republicans released earlier this week gave him 29 per cent support.
Giuliani has been unapologetic about his belief that a woman should have the right to an abortion, though he says he personally opposes the procedure. Giuliani pleaded in a speech at the conference Saturday for the group to accept that both were working toward the same "goal" of ending abortion, even if the path was different.
Some Christian conservative leaders have threatened to abandon the Republican party if Giuliani wins the nomination - largely over his views on abortion.
Romney, who has been lagging in third place in national polls of Republican voters, won 27.6 per cent of the support the summit attendees. A former governor of Massachusetts, Romney has drawn fire for being, as he says, a "convert" to the cause of opposing abortion in the past few years. Some Christian conservatives also regard him with suspicion over his Mormon faith.
Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and ordained Baptist minister who has yet to make a splash nationally, came in a close second in the poll with 27.2 per cent.
Former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, who entered the race only a few weeks ago after being pushed to run by many social conservatives, polled only 9.8 per cent - good enough for fourth place behind little-known House Representative Ron Paul. Thompson came in second with 19 per cent in the CNN poll this week.
All nine Republican presidential candidates, and no Democrats, made their case before this core group of Republican voters on Friday and Saturday, though Senator Sam Brownback dropped out of the race hours after addressing the conference. dpa cc
