The economy doesn’t even rank in the top three of issues for likely, Republican primary voters according to a statewide poll WBZ-TV and Franklin Pierce University released tonight.

  Democratic primary voters view Hillary Rodham Clinton overwhelmingly as the candidate who will win the nomination while Mitt Romney has become the clear front-runner in the first-in-the-nation primary state.

  The war in Iraq is the top issue for both groups though many more Democratic voters (76 percent) chose it as one of the top three than did Republicans (46 percent).

    For Republicans, immigration (36 percent), health care (30 percent) and taxes (28 percent) all rank as more important to them than the economy (24 percent).

    The economy is third highest (25 percent) for Democrats with health care (63 percent) a close second to Iraq on the issue agenda.

   Asked who would win their primary, 71 percent of Democrats say it will be Clinton to 8 percent for Barack Obama and 6 percent for John Edwards.

    Republican primary voters view Romney as the most likely winner here (37 percent) followed closely by Rudy Giuliani (31 percent) with John McCain (6 percent) a distant third.

   Both voting groups support a gradual withdrawl of troops from Iraq, more intensely for Democrats (69 percent) than Republicans (48 percent).

   Among Democrats, the second most popular option (26 percent) is a rapid withdrawal while Republicans chose leaving current troop levels (29 percent) far above getting out right away (2 percent).

    The telephone poll of 401 likely voters Nov. 1-4 has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.

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