Newt more popular than Perry and Romney in three polls from PPP

Public Policy Polling, after teasing these three polls the last few days, today released in full their latest surveys of Republican voters in North Carolina, Nebraska, and West Virginia.

Newt is in second place in all three -- in second place all by himself except in North Carolina, where Romney ties him -- and Herman Cain is riding a good stretch to first place in all three.

Newt also out-ranks Perry and Romney in terms of favorability, which is simply the number of those who view a candidate favorably minus the number of those who view the candidate unfavorably.

North Carolina:

Newt: +27 (58/31)
Romney: +19 (50/31)
Perry: +7 (44/37)

Nebraska:

Newt: +17 (49/32)
Romney: +11 (45/34)
Perry: 0 (35/35)

West Virginia:

Newt: +24 (50/26)
Romney: +15 (42/27)
Perry: +13 (38/25

Newt's favorability in North Carolina, notes PPP, is up 28 points the last month.

More info from North Carolina:

-- Newt leads among moderates, 27% to 18% for Romney.

-- Newt's support is across the board: 53/30 among moderates, 60/30 among "somewhat conservative" voters, and 64/26 among "very conservative." Among men, he's at 62/31. Among women, he's at 53/30. He gets a greater share of his support from women, 18%, than men, 15%. (Will the media report that? Ha. Right.)

From Nebraska:

-- Newt, once again, leads moderates, 21% to 17% who are not sure and 15% for Cain.

-- Newt is at 46/31 among women and 53/34 among men. He draws 16% of the vote among males and females alike.

From West Virginia:

-- The moderate Republicans in this state, for whatever reason, like Perry and Romney much more than in other states. (Could be a small sample size problem, or maybe it's real.)

-- Women voters approve of Newt 40/26 and men approve of him 59/25. Once again, he receives equal support from the two genders, 18% from each.

Sorry for all the numbers, but there was a lot of good news in today's polls. Newt has plenty of room for growth in his overall support given his favorability numbers.

The fact that he is beating Romney among moderates in some states is very encouraging, as that means Newt is not just competing with Cain and Perry (and others) for the conservative vote. He can pluck a good portion of the moderate vote as well. No other candidate has shown the ability to appeal to both moderates and conservatives as well as Newt does in these polls.

Newt 2012 is on the upswing thanks to all the great supporters who stuck with Newt during rough times. But in order to turn out the vote in Iowa in three months (and quickly followed by New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida), Newt will need volunteers to knock on doors and make phone calls, and money to get his message out.

For those of you in Iowa and New Hampshire, Newt will be opening up offices later this month.