August 07, 2012 09:25 PM UTC

PPP in Colorado: Obama 49%, Romney 43%

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• by: Colorado Pols

Democratic pollster Public Policy Polling’s latest:

PPP’s newest Colorado poll finds Barack Obama leading 49-43 in the state, just a shade closer than 49-42 when we last polled there two months ago. Obama continues to have the upper hand in Colorado because he leads with all the fastest growing groups of the electorate.

The key to Obama’s lead in Colorado is Hispanic voters. They like Obama a lot, approving of him by a 66/33 margin. And they strongly dislike Romney, with only 28% rating him favorably to 69% with an unfavorable opinion. As a result Obama currently leads with them by a 2:1 margin, 58/29. Add that to Obama basically running even with whites, down only 48-47 to Romney, and it’s the formula for a strong Obama standing in the state.

There’s also a broad generational gap in Colorado. Seniors support Romney by a 53/42 margin, but young voters go for Obama by a 59/27 spread. When you expand the categories, Romney leads 51-45 with voters over 45 in the state but Obama leads 55-34 with voters 45 and under. That bodes well for Democrats’ long term prospects in Colorado.

PPP shows President Barack Obama leading among Colorado independents 49-38%, and persistently tepid support for Mitt Romney among Colorado Republicans–significantly more Democrats are loyal to Obama in Colorado (92%) than Republicans are to Romney (85%). Given that Romney lost the caucuses here to Rick Santorum and the subsequent assembly process was rife with dissension in the ranks, that makes empirical sense.