News Interest Index: Public Still Getting to Know Leading GOP Candidates

Even as the 2008 presidential campaign draws increasing news coverage, the public shows limited awareness of the personal backgrounds of some of the top GOP candidates.

While 86% of the public is able to name Rudy Giuliani as the former mayor of New York City, only about half as many – 42% of the public – correctly identified Mitt Romney as a Mormon and even fewer (35%) knew that Romney was the former governor of Massachusetts.

Romney's speech on religion and politics, scheduled for Dec. 6, is widely seen as an effort to assuage concerns that some religious conservatives in the GOP have raised about his Mormon faith. Among Republicans, 60% could name Romney as the Republican candidate who is Mormon, but 40% could not.

Read the full report Public Still Getting to Know Leading GOP Candidates on the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press Web site.