The Hill News

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) leads President Obama by seven points among likely New Hampshire voters, according to a poll released Friday.

Romney fares best against Obama in head-to-head matchup compared to other major Republicans, according to a WMUR/Granite State Poll released this morning; Obama leads former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) by four percent and, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) trails Obama by seven points.

Fifty percent of likely New Hampshire voters would elect Romney, from neighboring Massachusetts, over Obama, who drew support from 43 percent. Six percent were undecided.

Forty-six percent of voters said they'd pick Obama over Huckabee, who'd win 42 percent in New Hampshire if the election were held today. Nine ! percent were undecided.

Pawlenty, who's still not as well-known in New Hampshire as Romney or Huckabee, fared worst against Obama. Forty-five percent of the state's voters would pick Obama in a matchup against Pawlenty. Thirty-eight percent would elect the former Minnesota governor, while 15 percent were undecided.

Still, the numbers have to be especially encouraging or Romney, who's set to make electability a centerpiece in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, and has pinned a great deal of his primary strategy on winning the New Hampshire primary.

To that end, New Hampshire Democrats filed a campaign finance complaint against Romney on Friday, a filing the former Massachusetts governor's aides dismissed as "political" and "frivolous." 

The poll also suggests difficulties for Obama in the Granite State since he cruised to victory in the 2008 presidential election with 54 percent of the vote. Democrats had picked up th! e state's two House seats and a Senate seat in the meanwhile, ! before t hose House seats were reclaimed in 2010's GOP wave.

Obama's numbers are upside-down since the days of the 2008 election. Fifty-two percent of New Hampshire voters now say they disapprove of the way Obama's handling his job as president, while 44 percent approve.

The poll, conducted April 15-26, has a 4.4 percent margin of error.