Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - New Polling Data In Democratic Primary

To: Interested parties

From: The Clinton campaign

Re: New Polling Data In Democratic Primary

In the first national poll taken completely after the speeches in Selma, Hillary Clinton is the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination with 38% of the vote of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents, to 21% for Barack Obama, 14% for Al Gore and 10% for John Edwards, according to a just released AP/Ipsos poll of over 1000 Americans released today. The poll was conducted Monday through Wednesday. The 17 point margin represents a tic up from two polls that had the margin at 12%.

In the AP/Ipsos poll, Clinton has more of the vote than the next two Democratic candidates combined. In addition, according to the poll, Clinton leads her closest Democratic competitor among voters who say honesty, strong character, compassion, intelligence and stance on issues matter most.

Honesty was listed as the most important character trait by 41 percent of voters (open-ended). In all, 55 percent said honesty, integrity and other values of character were most important, compared with one-third who said stance on issues is most important.

In the March 7 Gallup poll, (Taken March 2-4), Clinton leads Obama 44-27 in the race without Al Gore (Edwards is at 10%), and leads 36-22 in the race with Gore (Gore has 18 percent and Obama 22 percent). This was taken right after the Oscars. In the head-to-head horserace, Clinton leads Obama 56 percent to 36 percent.

The March 3 Newsweek poll had similar findings: Clinton leads Obama 52-38 in the head-to-head primary.

An NBC/WSJ poll taken last weekend (March 2-5) had the race slightly closer at 40-28 without Gore in the race, and an ABC/Washington Post poll taken before that also had a 12-point margin with Gore in and a larger margin with Gore out.