White House hopeful Herman Cain, once polling at the top of the Republican field in the key state of Iowa, is losing support at a rapid rate there, a poll to be released on Saturday shows.
Beset by a series of sex scandal allegations, the former pizza executive is now only pulling eight percent support among likely participants in the January 3 Iowa caucuses that kick off the 2012 presidential nominating season, The Des Moines Register said in a preview of its poll.
That\'s down from 23 percent in late October.
Cain has denied allegations of sexual harassment from two women and claims from the latest woman to come forward, businesswoman Ginger White, that she had a 13-year affair with him that ended just a few months ago.
But in the wake of the alleged affair, 47 percent of respondents said Cain was the candidate most likely to have a scandal in the White House by the time the Sunday-to-Wednesday poll ended, up from 25 percent at the start of polling.
He has also acknowledged his wife was unaware of the relationship until it grew into a media firestorm last week, and is expected to make an announcement on whether to continue in the race at an event later Saturday.
The explosive sexual allegations, and past stumbles on major foreign policy issues, made Iowans less eager to meet Cain in person.
While the candidate saw 22 percent of caucusgoers say they wanted to meet him face-to-face during a two-day rolling average of Sunday-Monday polling, that number dropped to eight percent for Tuesday-Wednesday results.
"You have to know all the issues, foreign, domestic everything," poll respondent Carol Bohlen, 61, told The Des Moines Register. And she added: "I just feel there\'s too much coming out about his past, and I don\'t think that would be very presidential."
Selzer & Co. of Des Moines conducted the poll of 401 likely Republican caucusgoers November 27-30. The poll, due to be released in full at 7:00 pm (0100 GMT) has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
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