Trump Leads GOP, Carson Stays Strong, Rubio 3rd: Poll
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BY JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
10/30/2015 06:45 PM ET

After taking a battering in last month's poll, Donald Trump has re-emerged at the top of the Republican field in the latest IBD/TIPP poll.

Support for Trump among registered Republicans and those leaning Republican is 28%; support for Carson is 23%. Last month's poll had Carson up by 7 points over Trump.

Marco Rubio comes in third at 11%, the same as last month.

No other GOP candidate reached double digits. Support for Jeb Bush dropped two points to 6%; Carly Fiorina collapsed to 3% from last month's 9%. Ted Cruz held at 6%.

"Trump's support in the last poll suffered somewhat because of his nearly weeklong boycott of Fox News, which has since been lifted," said Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, which conducts the IBD/TIPP poll. "Carson has recently been under more scrutiny by both the media and other candidates."

Mayur added, "Though our latest poll shows Trump leading Carson, the poll's margin of error of +/- five points means that Trump and Carson are still running a close race."

That's evident from other polls. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows Carson in the lead by four points, while the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll has Trump up by three points. Several Iowa polls show Carson well ahead of Trump.

The RealClearPolitics average has Trump at 26.8% to Carson's 22%, with Trump down from his mid-September peak of 30.5%.

Interestingly, Carson does beat Trump among investors in the IBD/TIPP Poll — 27% to 24% — as well as among independents by 30% to 21%. Trump leads among men — 38% to Carson's 18%. Among women, it's Carson at 28% to 18% for Trump.

Most of the polling was conducted before Wednesday's GOP debate, at which Rubio's performance was widely praised and Bush's panned.

On the Democratic side, 48% back Hillary Clinton, with 33% backing Bernie Sanders. Martin O'Malley, the only other Democrat in the race, gets just 2%.

The poll included 402 registered and Republican-leaning voters for their top GOP pick. The findings have a margin of error of +/- 5 percentage points. The poll asked 356 Democrats and Democrat-leaners, with a margin of error of +/-5.3 points.

The poll also found that the economy and jobs will have the greatest impact on choice of candidate — 45% said so. Health care came in second at 18%, followed by national security 17% and foreign policy 11%.

Just 5% said that illegal immigration is a top concern. That issue has largely been responsible for Trump's support.

Other IBD/TIPP Poll findings:

61% say that the country is on the wrong track.

59% are dissatisfied with current federal economic policies.

48% say that the economy is not improving, and 48% say it is.

Just 37% of those following the story think Obama is effective in fighting the Islamic State; 80% see the terror group as a direct threat to the U.S.

60% of those following the Benghazi story think the Obama administration deliberately misled the public that the attack was the result of a video.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editor...-tipp-poll.htm