Johnson Leads Santorum And Huntsman, Ties Cain In Latest CNN Poll, But Excluded From NBC/Politico Debate

August 29, 2011

Posted in Blog, Facebook , Gov. Gary Johnson, Twitter

August 29, 2011, SALT LAKE CITY, UT - A nation-wide poll conducted August 24-25 and released Monday by CNN/ORC shows former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is supported for the Republican presidential nomination by 2% of respondents, ahead of Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum and tied with Herman Cain.

Ron Nielson, senior advisor to Johnson, says these results show the fundamental unfairness of Johnson’s exclusion from next week’s Simi Valley debate sponsored by NBC, Politico and the Reagan Foundation. Huntsman, Santorum and Cain have all been invited to participate, while Johnson is being excluded.

Nielson said, “This poll, conducted by credible organizations and more current than those used by NBC and Politico to choose who will be allowed on the stage in California next week, shows that it is ludicrous to exclude Gary Johnson, while inviting other candidates whose support appears to be no greater than his. Drawing arbitrary lines between polling results, when all of those results are within margins of error, and using those lines to determine who gets to take his or her message to the voters on a national stage is fundamentally wrong at this stage of the process.

“The voters are supposed to ‘narrow the field’ and pick the winners, not the national news media sitting around a conference room deciding that a candidate with a 4% poll showing is somehow more viable than one with 3%.

“Lacking the national recognition and financial resources of other candidates, Gary Johnson is building his support the old-fashioned way, and it is beginning to show. He is out there every day, talking to voters, sharing his views, and earning support one voter at a time. The national media’s refusal to acknowledge that support is getting tiresome, but we can and will overcome it, as this CNN/ORC poll indicates.”