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Opinion: New L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll posts soon

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Mike Huckabee isn’t simply a one-state wonder, and his growing strength has left the Republican presidential race more scrambled than ever, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll finds.

We won’t reveal the precise numbers here; for that, you can check our website later (roughly 4 p.m. PST) and Wednesday’s print edition. But the survey found that Huckabee’s surge in Iowa, where in several recent polls he erased the advantage Mitt Romney long enjoyed in the state, has been paralleled by a rise across the country among GOP-leaning voters.

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In the new poll, the uptick in Huckabee’s standing has come largely at the expense of Rudy Giuliani, who had led by comfortable margins in previous nationwide surveys.

The volatility in the Republican contest was not found in the Democratic race.

Whereas recent polls in Iowa have shown support almost evenly splintered among Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, theTimes/Bloomberg poll detected little sign of slippage in the solid nationwide lead Clinton staked out at the start of this year. By contrast, a new USA Today/Gallup Poll found erosion in her support -- her lead over Obama in that survey was 15 percentage points, down from 28 points in early November.

Although the Clinton camp should be heartened by the Times/Bloomberg results, their eyes will continue to be glued to the ebb and flow of the fight in Iowa. Traditionally, the outcome of the Democratic caucuses there have had a more significant impact on the party’s nomination battle than has been the case for the Republicans.

The last Times/Bloomberg national poll was conducted in mid-October; you can peruse its figures here.

-- Don Frederick

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