Quarter of New Hampshire female voters watching Iowa

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - One-quarter of women voters in New Hampshire say they will cast their ballot in next month's presidential primary election based on the results of the Iowa caucus a few days earlier, a survey showed on Wednesday.

The women said if their favorite candidate for the presidential nomination did not win on January 3 in Iowa, they would vote for someone else in the January 8 New Hampshire primary, the Lifetime/Zogby poll found.

The Midwestern state of Iowa holds the first of the state-by-state battles to pick Democratic and Republican candidates for the November 4, 2008, presidential election with New Hampshire voting five days later.

More than 40 percent of women in New Hampshire had not decided on a candidate and 30 percent are "leaning" toward a candidate, the poll showed. Only one in four women in the New England state had definitely decided who would get their vote.

"Women are largely undecided about which presidential candidate they are supporting, and in New Hampshire, the primary is still very much up for grabs," said Meredith Wagner, Lifetime Networks executive vice president for public affairs.

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York had 39 percent support among decided female Democrats in New Hampshire, followed by Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois with 25 percent. Among Republicans, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 23 percent support and Arizona Sen. John McCain had 16 percent.

The poll, conducted as Obama campaigned with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, also found one third of female voters under 30 in New Hampshire felt Winfrey's involvement would make them less likely to vote for him.

The Lifetime/Zogby poll was conducted between December 6 and December 8 among 500 New Hampshire adult women. The margin of error in the New Hampshire sample was 4.5 percentage points.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and David Alexander)