Poll suggests Romney has room to grow

Mitt Romney could take some solace from a new national poll.

While he's running third in most national polling, the former Massachusetts governor is far less of a known quantity to Republican voters than front-runner Rudy Giuliani, according to the Gallup poll, released Thursday.

According to the poll, only 64 percent of Republicans know enough about Romney to have a positive or negative view of him, compared to 91 percent for the former New York mayor.

So the glass half-full view would be that Romney has a better opportunity than Giuliani to persuade lots of voters out there that he's their guy.

But Fred Thompson, the actor and former Tennessee senator expected to jump in the race around Labor Day, has more room to grow his support -- 56 percent of Republicans said they are familiar enough with him to rate him -- and he's ahead of Romney in second in most horse-race surveys. He also leads among Republicans who are familiar with all top four GOP contenders.

On the other hand, the survey suggests that John McCain, whose candidacy is going through a rough time, could have a tough slog turning the momentum around. The Arizona senator is well-known by 87 percent of Republicans.

Of course, the opportunity to sway voters who don't know much about candidates can swing the other way -- the more they know, the less they like.

Among Democrats, the poll offers encouragement for Hillary Clinton. She is the clear front-runner and her two closet competitors, John Edwards and Barack Obama, are almost as well-known by Democratic voters as she is, giving them less room to maneuver and change minds.

According to the poll, 94 percent of Democrats are familiar enough with Clinton to rate her, compared to 85 percent for Edwards, and 84 percent for Obama. And among Democrats who know all three, she holds her lead.

The random telephone survey was conducted Aug. 13-16. Among the 1,274 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents surveyed, the margin of error of results is plus or minus 3 percentage points. The margin of error is the same for results derived from the 1,441 Republicans and GOP-leaning independents surveyed.