Five tied for national lead in GOP nomination race

DES MOINES - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker established a strong 8-point lead among likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers in a Quinnipiac University Poll earlier this month, but he's part of a five-way tie in a national Quinnipiac poll.

'Safe to say, the 2016 Republican presidential primary is anyone's race,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll, said about the results showing the Wisconsin governor polling 10 percent nationally - the same as Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Hillary Clinton dominates the Democratic field, and despite voters saying by a 53 to 39 percent margin that Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, Quinnipiac found she would defeat any of the GOP hopefuls.

'Can you get low marks on honesty and still be a strong leader? Sure you can,” Malloy said. 'Hillary Clinton crushes her Democratic rivals and keeps the GOP horde at arm's length.”

He called the race for the GOP nomination 'a scrambled field - at least so far.”

With no front-runner and identical numbers for the top five contenders there's either five leaders or no leader among Republican voters as they look at likely GOP candidates in the 2016 White House race, Malloy said. No candidate polled better than 10 percent and Quinnipiac found 20 percent remain undecided as the GOP field continues to grow.

Rules being considered for presidential candidate debates beginning Aug. 6 call for inviting only the top 10 candidates in national polling. Rounding out Quinnipiac's top 10 are Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at 7 percent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 6 percent, Donald Trump at 5 percent, New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie at 4 percent and Carly Fiorina and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 2 percent each.

Trump tops the 'no way” list, as 21 percent of Republican voters say they would definitely not support him. Bush is next with 17 percent, with Christie at 15 percent.

Clinton's support has slipped from 60 percent in April to 57 percent, but Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has 15 percent and Vice President Joe Biden has 9 percent. No other candidate tops 1 percent with 14 percent undecided.

Clinton and Biden top the 'no way” list with 9 percent each.

In a general election matchup, Clinton gets 46 percent to 42 percent for Paul and 45 percent to 41 percent for Rubio. She leads Bush by 10 point, Cruz by 11 and other Republicans by 6 to 8 percentage points. Clinton reaches 50 percent only against Trump.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,711 registered voters nationwide May 19-26. The results have a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percentage points. Live interviewers called landlines and cellphones. The survey includes 679 Republicans with a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percentage points and 748 Democrats with a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage points.

For more, visit www.quinnipiac.edu/polling.