A week ago, a series of polls of early voting states was released by the polling firm Insider Advantage that showed Newt Gingrich with dramatic new leads over Mitt Romney. But as we wrote at the time, there was some question about its veracity, because the head of Insider Advantage, Matt Towery, has longtime connections with the former House Speaker.
Not today, with two new polls showing Gingrich besting Romney in Florida with equally strong leads. A Time/CNN/ORC International poll has Newt up 48 to 25 over Romney, and a spanking new Quinnipiac poll shows Gingrich up with 35 percent, followed by Romney with 22 percent. Ron Paul is a very distant third at 8 percent.
The Q survey shows Gingrich topping Romney in a head-to-head matchup, 52-34 percent in Florida.
This article appears in Dec 8-14, 2011.