Poll: Palin’s numbers slip in Iowa

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is still popular among Iowa Republicans, but a new poll shows her favorability ratings headed in the wrong direction as a potential 2012 campaign approaches.

Palin’s favorables are now at 65 percent among Republican voters in the state, according to a new poll conducted for the Des Moines Register. That’s a slight drop from her high of 71 percent in a November 2009 Register poll.

{mosads}More concerning for Palin is the waning intensity in her support. In November of 2009, 27 percent of likely Republican voters said they view Palin “very favorably.” That number is now just 18 percent.

“One might ask the question: Is she wearing well? And the numbers are not moving in a favorable direction on that,” said Ann Selzer, director of the Register’s Iowa Poll.

The percentage of likely GOP voters in the state who view Palin unfavorably has also jumped seven points. That number now stands at 30 percent, up from 23 percent.

The poll surveyed 800 Iowa adults with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 percentage points. The results also included 189 Republican likely voters with a margin of error of 7.1 percentage points.

Palin remains undecided on a 2012 bid, but Republicans in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire have drawn attention to her lack of campaign activity in either state.

While Palin has visited Iowa a handful of times over the past year — three of those visits have been to promote her book, and activists say she has done little to no outreach to potential supporters or donors. She also hasn’t made a single trip to New Hampshire. 

Compared to a slew of other rumored GOP contenders, most of whom have made multiple trips to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to court support, Pailn has appeared to do little overall to lay the groundwork for a 2012 bid.

During a recent trip to New York, Palin didn’t offer a timetable for a decision on a presidential run next year, but said she was “still thinking” about a run.