Gingrich widens lead in first post-Cain Gallup national poll

Newt Gingrich widened his lead over Mitt Romney to 14 points in the first Gallup daily national poll to completely exclude ex-rival Herman Cain.

The poll, which took a five-day rolling average of registered Republicans between Dec. 4 and Dec. 8, shows Gingrich in the lead at 37 percent, followed by Romney at 23 percent.

In the previous poll, which automatically assigned Cain’s votes to his supporters’ second choice, Gingrich took 34 percent compared to Romney’s 25 percent.

This seems to back up the findings of a number of polls taken while Cain was still in the race, which said Cain supporters preferred Gingrich as their second choice.

Cain suspended his campaign last Saturday, saying that allegations of sexual harassment and infidelity against him were hurting his family.

All of the other candidates remained relatively flat.

Ron Paul took 9 percent, Rick Perry 6 percent, Michele Bachmann 6 percent, Rick Santorum 2 percent, and Jon Hunstman 1 percent.

It’s the latest poll to show Gingrich either neck and neck or ahead of Romney for the Republican presidential nomination.

The Gingrich surge has sustained its momentum despite the other GOP candidates, most notably Paul, having turned their sights on the former House Speaker, as well as a number of Gingrich’s former colleagues who have come out to blast him in the press.

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