Pawlenty leads in informal poll of evangelical leaders

WASHINGTON (RNS) Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is the top
Republican pick of evangelical leaders, according to an informal survey,
with 45 percent saying he would be their choice for GOP nominee in the
2012 election.

Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of
Evangelicals, which conducted the survey, said the results weren't
surprising since Pawlenty "is so often identified as an evangelical."

But Anderson, Pawlenty's longtime pastor at Wooddale Church in Eden
Prairie, Minn., noted that the outcome of the larger evangelical vote
remains uncertain.