Many GOP Influentials Still Undecided

With less than a month to go until the New Hampshire Primary, many Republican activists still haven't made up their minds.

The latest Patch-Huffington Post Power Outsiders survey of GOP influentials in the early-voting states of New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Florida shows that more than one-third of the 171 respondents are either undecided, unsure how certain they are, or could still change their minds about which candidate they plan to support.

Of those who have settled on a candidate, however, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich received the most support.

Romney holds a slight edge with 17 public endorsements, followed by Gingrich with 14, Rick Perry (11), Jon Huntsman (7), Ron Paul (7), Rick Santorum (3), Michele Bachmann (2) and Buddy Roemer (1). But Gingrich's numbers have seen a huge uptick, as he had only four endorsements in a .

Combining public endorsements and private support shows Gingrich and Romney clearly in the lead (with 27 and 26 percent, respectively), followed by Paul (9 percent), Perry (9 percent), Huntsman (7 percent), Santorum (6 percent) and Bachmann (4 percent).

Among GOP activists in New Hampshire alone, though, Romney leads by a much wider margin, with 34 percent support, compared to Paul at 15 percent, Gingrich at 14 percent, Perry at 12 percent, Huntsman at 9 percent and Santorum at 5 percent.

Each week, our local Patch editors will be asking influential New Hampshire Republicans questions about the presidential campaign, and we'll report the results here.

We’re still looking to expand our list of influential members of both parties in New Hampshire. If you’d like to participate, email marc.fortier@patch.com and we’ll connect you with the appropriate Patch editor.