By Bob Benenson, CQ Staff

When asked who they would like to see running for president in 2012, Republicans cite familiar names from the 2008 presidential campaign season, topped by vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin . This is according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll that provides a very early test of GOP voters’ preferences.

Palin, the governor of Alaska, led with 29 percent among the 462 Republicans who responded to the poll taken Feb. 18-19. Palin built a sizable fan club on the Republican right as the party’s surprise vice presidential pick with her effusive campaign style and strongly conservative views, though she committed several stumbles that raised serious doubts among many other voters.

Palin’s lead was not big enough, however, to clearly establish her as the early candidate to beat in a nominating race that will take shape over the course of the next three years. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who emerged as the longest-lasting challenger to eventual presidential nominee John McCain in the 2008 Republican nominating campaign, was close behind at 26 percent.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney also attracted support from a significant 21 percent of the Republican respondents. Romney was widely regarded as the leading opponent to Arizona Sen. McCain at the beginning of the 2008 nominating process, but defeats in several key early contests prompted him to drop out of the race.

The only other potential 2012 candidate to draw support was Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal , who received 9 percent. The poll was taken before Jindal, heavily touted as one of the Republican Party’s rising stars, received a number of negative reviews for a nationally television speech he gave Tuesday as the Republican Party’s response to President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress.

A 10 percent share of poll respondents said they would support another candidate in 2012.

The poll did suggest that Palin may have a stronger base among Republican women voters than among men. While the overall gap between Palin and Huckabee was 3 percentage points, she had a 10-point lead — 32 percent to 22 percent - among women alone.

The poll’s margin of error was 4.5 percentage points.

A different measure of potential 2012 support, which a stricter ideological bearing, will be taken Saturday in a straw poll among attendees at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.