Michael Symons

@MichaelSymons_

TRENTON - Businessman Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders approach Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire with double-digit leads, according to Monmouth University poll results released Sunday.

Trump has support from 30 percent of likely Republican voters, the poll shows. Four candidates are clustered together vying for second place: Gov. John Kasich at 14 percent, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush at 13 percent each and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz at 12 percent. Bush has gained 9 points since last month’s Monmouth poll in New Hampshire.

Gov. Chris Christie is then part of a third tier of candidates at 6 percent, along with Carly Fiorina at 5 percent and Ben Carson at 4 percent.

Christie: Five Republicans may survive N.H. primary

On the Democratic side, Sanders has support from 52 percent of likely voters and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton receives support from 42 percent. Last month, Sanders led Clinton by 14 percentage points in Monmouth’s poll.

Things could certainly change. Just half of likely Republican voters are completely decided on a candidate, according to the poll. Thirty-one percent have a strong preference but are open to other candidates, 12 percent have only a slight preference and 9 percent are undecided.

“While Trump’s placement as the top finisher seems fairly secure at this point, the margin of victory and final order of the remaining candidates are still very much up for grabs,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

GOP presidential candidates rumble in New Hampshire

Another 18 percent of likely voters said it’s somewhat or very likely they could support Christie, while 62 percent said they would not vote for him.

After last week’s Iowa caucus, Monmouth pollsters called back the people they had interviewed before the caucus to see how their votes compared with their pre-caucus intentions. Among those with a strong preference, one-fourth switched candidates and one-fifth didn’t vote. Among those less committed to a candidate, one-third switched candidates and one-third stayed home.

Christie sliding in polls as N.H. primary nears

Most of the poll was conducted before Saturday night’s debate, in which Christie was generally judged to have had a solid performance.

The poll was conducted from Thursday through Saturday. It included 508 likely Republican voters and 502 likely Democratic voters, giving each side of the survey a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

Michael Symons: (609) 984-4336; msymons@gannettnj.com