If the 2012 Republican presidential primary were held today, conservative voters would prefer New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain as their nominee, a new poll found.

According to the IBOPE Zogby poll released Tuesday, 17 percent of GOP voters want Christie, who says he will not run for president in 2012 despite repeated urging from conservatives, to win the nomination. The poll found that Cain comes in second, with 14 percent. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was next, with 10 percent; the rest of the 10 or so names failed to get double digits.

But the IBOPE Zogby poll also found that 31 percent of GOP voters think former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whom 9 percent of Republican voters want to win the nomination, is most likely to actually get the nomination. He leads in that category with former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, next in line with 8 percent of Republican voters.

The poll comes on the same day that Paul said he plans to announce this week whether or not he'll jump into the 2012 presidential race. He has only announced an exploratory committee thus far, not a formal bid.

The promising numbers for Cain, who is considered a dark-horse candidate, might have to do with his performance at the first Republican presidential debate in South Carolina last week. Right after the debate a small group of Republicans were asked who did the best, and the majority said Cain.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Tuesday that he plans to announce whether he will run for president within the next week.

Planned Parenthood rebuked Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) for signing into law legislation that bars the group from receiving federal dollars in the state, and promised to take legal action.

The bill was one of 80 the two-term governor signed into law Tuesday, according to his office. Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, called the decision "outrageous."

"Clearly, Governor Daniels, who has called for a truce on social issues, would rather play politics with women’s health than show leadership and fiscal responsibility by rejecting a bill that will ultimately cost the state millions in federal funding," Richards said in a statement.

Planned Parenthood said it would immediately file "litigation in federal court against this bill, including requesting an immediate injunction to prevent the law from taking effect while the litigation proceeds."

Daniels, who is mulling a presidential bid, had been under pressure from social conservatives to sign the measure into law. Tony Perkins, who heads the Family Research Council, called it a "defining moment" for the potential 2012 presidential hopeful.

New York Sen. Charles Schumer will be in the Buffalo area Sunday to campaign for Kathy Hochul as the special election race enters its final stage, according to the Democrat's campaign.

Schumer will be the first high-profile Democrat to stump in the 26th district for Hochul, who is a surprise contender in the race for former Rep. Chris Lee's (R) open seat.

A poll released this week showed Hochul with a four-point lead over Republican Jane Corwin and an 11-point lead over Independent candidate Jack Davis.

Aware of the symbolic power of a victory in the conservative-leaning district, New York Democrats have rallied to help Hochul in recent weeks.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has issued fundraising pleas on Hochul's behalf -- raising more than $12,000 for her in two days through an email pitch, according to a campaign spokesman.

Gillibrand will travel to the district in the final week before the special election to make a get-out-the-vote push for Hochul. The upstate former congresswoman also issued a fundraising plea through the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Tuesday.

Likely GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty wants Republicans to dig in their heels in the debt-ceiling battle.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) said his chances of beating President Obama in the 2012 race for the White House are "quite good."

Daniels' boisterous comments came a week after he said he's "probably not" ready to debate Obama on foreign policy.

The two-term governor is considered a top contender for his party's presidential nod, but Daniels has said he remains "weeks" away from making a decision about whether he will run. Meanwhile, his comments to reporters Tuesday in Indianapolis are the latest sign he could be edging toward a bid.

Daniels is fresh off an East Coast swing, which took him to New York, Baltimore and Washington, where he made a high-profile speech about his Indiana education agenda last week.

Moreover, Indiana first lady Cheri Daniels has also increased her profile recently and is set to speak at the state GOP's spring dinner May 12. She has a reputation for shying away from political functions.

The governor insisted that any decision he makes about next year will depend on his family.

"It's no secret that family comes first with me, and that's a consideration," Daniels told WIBC in Indianapolis. "This is not a mountain you jump off by yourself. You take others with you, and that matters to me."

Sen. Dick Lugar's (R-Ind.) primary challenger said Tuesday that the longtime senator is increasingly "estranged" from the Indiana GOP, calling a Monday attack from Lugar's camp "pretty pathetic."  

Lugar is facing a challenge from the right next year in the form of Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R), who Lugar's campaign compared to failed GOP Senate candidates Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell on Monday.

In a letter to Indiana Republicans, Lugar's political director said the litany of GOP county chairmen in the state backing Mourdock have been "duped into participating in the same failed scheme that resulted in Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle and cost us two crucial Senate seats in 2010."

O'Donnell and Angle both defeated more centrist Republicans in primaries in Delaware and Nevada last year. They both lost their general election contests.

In an interview Tuesday, Mourdock told The Ballot Box the letter was met with "the white hot anger of a thousand suns" by many of the local party officials who have endorsed Mourdock's bid.

"They're pissed," Mourdock said Tuesday, adding that he has spoken to several about the letter since Monday afternoon. "It's quite an insult to suggest that they're capable of being duped. I would say it's pretty pathetic." 

The conservative group American Crossroads took out a major, six-figure ad buy to push Republican Jane Corwin across the finish line in the special election in New York's 26th congressional district.

American Crossroads said it had purchased $350,000 worth of media in the Buffalo and Rochester market ahead of next Tuesday, May 24's special election to fill former Rep. Chris Lee's (R-N.Y.) seat.

Corwin is locked in a tight, three-way race between Democrat Kathy Hochul and Jack Davis, a former Democrat-turned-Tea Party member.

Democrats with a close eye on the race say the ad buy is closer to $640,000.

“This race has become artificially competitive because liberal Democrat Jack Davis is now trying to pass himself off as a conservative while the other liberal Democrat, Katie Hochul, is benefiting from his trick,” said American Crossroads communications director Jonathan Collegio. “This ad buy seeks to expose the Democrat trick for what it is.”

Republicans are hoping to avoid the fiasco that plagued them in 2009, when Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava, who eventually withdrew, split votes with Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman in a special election to fill a GOP seat. Democrat bill Owens eventually won in that race, and retains the seat in Congress.

Polls have shown the race is tight, and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was in the district on Monday to help stump for Corwin.

House Majority PAC, one of the Democratic groups that operates similarly to Crossroads, called the ad buy a sign of panic.

"John Boehner, Karl Rove, and the Right are clearly in full panic mode in what should have been a slam dunk for them in the special election in upstate New York. House Republicans’ reckless budget that guts Medicare and protects $40 billion in giveaways to Big Oil has put this heavily Republican seat in play," said Ryan Rudominer, a spokesman for the PAC.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) plans his first trip to Iowa later this month, according to a report.

Romney will make the trip to the Hawkeye State, which hosts the first-in-the-nation nominating caucuses in 2012, on May 27 for a speech in Des Moines, according to the Des Moines Register.

The stop in Iowa marks a later start for Romney in Iowa than he attempted in 2008, when he set up a ground game and aggressive campaign much earlier in the cycle (as had other candidates at that point).

This time, the former governor has pinned less of his strategy for winning the GOP nomination on winning Iowa's caucuses; he's spent much more of his efforts on New Hampshire, where early polls indicate that he enjoys a lead over the rest of the Republican field.