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"The thing fueling Cain's lead in all of these states is strong support from the furthest right segment of the Republican electorate," said Tom Jensen of PPP in a statement. "Cain is at 35% with 'very conservative' voters and has a 14 point lead over Perry with them in North Carolina. In Nebraska he's at 36% with them, putting him up 22 points over Gingrich and Perry. And in West Virginia he gets 25% with them, giving him a 9 point edge on Gingrich and Perry."



Jensen said that Cain's surge is primarily the result of "very conservative" voters shopping for a candidate in the field.



"They've gone from Huckabee to Trump back to Huckabee to Bachmann to Perry and now to Cain. I would expect their support for Cain to be pretty temporary," Jensen said. "One thing that's been very clear through all these twists and turns though- they're not going to support Romney."



Gingrich, however, seems to have built his lead with moderate voters. The former speaker has declined to attack other Republican candidates at debates, and recently announced a revamped "Contract with America" in hopes of rekindling the passions that brought Republicans to power in 1994.



"Those voters have previously tended to give Romney first place status- it really says something about the state of the Republican field when Newt Gingrich becomes the choice for centrists," Jensen said.



But while Republicans might not be completely enamored with Romney, he has maintained solid support in both state and national polls.



"Romney's support has been pretty steady all year as folks have risen and fallen around him- the question is just whether that base of support is going to end up being enough to carry him to the nomination," Jensen said.





