Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee moved into first place among Republicans in Iowa, and Illinois Senator Barack Obama is leading the Democratic field, according to a Des Moines Register poll.
The shift among the top contenders in both parties since the last Register poll comes about a month before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, the first contest in the 2008 nomination race. It is followed by the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8.
``We've been on a steady, slow, but upward trajectory, and things are looking good for us,'' Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, said today on ABC's ``This Week'' program.
Huckabee won the support of 29 percent of Republicans polled, surging 17 percentage points since an October survey and overtaking former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who got 24 percent support in the poll conducted Nov. 25-28. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had 13 percent support and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson trailed with 9 percent.
``I don't think there's any doubt that Governor Huckabee has done very well in the last few debates,'' Senator John McCain of Arizona, who was fifth in the poll with 7 percent, said today on CBS's ``Face the Nation'' program. ``He is a force to be reckoned with.''
Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, outpolls Romney 38 percent to 22 percent among voters who characterize themselves as ``born-again'' Christians, the Register said. Such Republicans make up half of all likely caucus participants, the newspaper said.
Democratic Numbers
Obama was supported by 28 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers, an increase from 22 percent in October. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York fell to second place in Iowa with 25 percent, compared with 29 percent in October, the Register said. Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, who led the Register's poll in May, got the backing of 23 percent.
The gap between Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in most national polls, and Obama in Iowa is within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
``The situation is very fluid in the early primaries,'' Maryland Representative Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program. ``You can see that in the polls in Iowa. You can see it in New Hampshire. Things are bouncing around.''
Just more than half of the Democrats who favor a candidate and about six in 10 Republicans said they may change their minds over the next month, according to the Register's data.
The telephone poll surveyed 500 Democrats and 500 Republicans.
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