A poll released Wednesday by Public Policy Polling, a firm with connections to prominent Democrats, showed Gov. Rick Perry of Texas continues to lead the Republican presidential race.

Perry topped the national poll with 31 percent, followed by former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts with 18 percent. Congressman Ron Paul of Texas placed third with 11 percent, followed by former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia in fourth with 10 percent. Two candidates polled in high single digits -- U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota with 9 percent and businessman Herman Cain with 8 percent. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah trailed with 2 percent each.

When PPP took a poll in August, right after the Texas governor entered the race, Perry led the pack with 33 percent followed by Romney with 20 percent and Bachmann, who had just won the Iowa Republican straw poll, with 16 percent. Gingrich took 8 percent and Paul and Cain 6 percent.

When matched up against Romney in a one-on-one battle, Perry continues to lead. He beat Romney 49 percent to 37 percent in the new poll, slightly down from August when he led 52 percent to 36 percent.

“Perry’s momentum has finally stopped,” said Dean Debnam, president of PPP. “He was gaining more and more support with every new poll and that is not the case with this one. But he’s in a very good position. The big question now is whether he can hold onto it.”

PPP polled the favorable ratings of Perry, Romney, Gingrich and Bachmann, and found that the Texas governor once again led the pack. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed have favorable impressions of Perry while 24 percent view him unfavorably. A majority -- 52 percent -- had favorable opinions of Romney while 32 percent saw him unfavorably. Gingrich had the highest unfavorable rating with 39 percent, but 46 percent had a favorable view of the former speaker. Bachmann polled similar numbers to Gingrich: 45 percent saw her as favorable and 36 percent viewed her as unfavorable.

The poll of 500 usual Republican primary voters was taken from Sept. 8-11 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percent.

Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.