Romney had the support of 39% of those surveyed, compared with 13% for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, 12% for former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee and 9% for Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The poll was taken Saturday through Tuesday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Romney's margin was so huge that some questioned the results.

Charlie Cook, who runs the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan, Washington, D.C.-based newsletter analyzing elections and campaigns, said it appears too high to be true. But, he added, the ARG result, along with other polls, give him little reason to doubt that Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, "is the front-runner at this point in Michigan."

"The trend is really clear," said Mark Blumenthal, editor of Pollster.com, a nonpartisan Web site that aggregates and charts polling data. He, too, questioned the strength of ARG's result, but said it's easy to see Romney's support is growing in the state. Other polls, including one conducted in January for the Free Press and WDIV-TV Local 4 television, had shown Giuliani with a clear lead in Michigan.

Labels: Michigan