THE RACE: New Yorkers top polling in South Carolina, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton leading both Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards with 43 percent among Democratic voters. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani leads Republicans with 30 percent.

THE NUMBERS – DEMOCRATS

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, 43 percent

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, 27 percent

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, 17 percent

No opinion, 9 percent

THE NUMBERS – REPUBLICAN

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, 30 percent

Arizona Sen. John McCain, 21 percent

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, 18 percent

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 6 percent

No opinion, 11 percent

OF INTEREST:

Deep ties through her husband’s presidency are helping Clinton, who has lagged Obama in building an organization in South Carolina. Obama had been expected to do well in South Carolina, where half of the early voting state’s Democratic voters are black. Giuliani appears to have weathered the news of his former state chairman’s federal indictment on a cocaine distribution charge. McCain appears to be holding his own despite national and state staff shake-ups.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. Poll was conducted by telephone July 16-18. The poll of 1,052 adults included 432 likely Republican primary voters and 380 likely Democratic primary voters. It has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)