Herman Cain Poll - Cain Still Leads, but Gingrich Surges: CBS

Despite the sexual harassment allegations swirling around him, former CEO Herman Cain held on to the top spot in the latest CBS News poll.

The poll found that 18 percent of likely Republican voters supported Cain, 15 percent supported Mitt Romney and another 15 percent supported Newt Gingrich, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. Cain and Romney have both lost support since last month's CBS News poll, while Gingrich has improved his standing by 7 percentage points.

However, 70 percent said they might still change their minds.

So far, the sexual harassment scandal has not hurt Cain as much as many people expected, and it certainly has not torpedoed his campaign. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released last week showed him with 23 percent support to Romney's 24 percent, with Rick Perry at 13 percent and Gingrich at 12 percent.

In the new CBS News poll, a majority of Republicans, 60 percent, said the allegations would not affect their vote. That number was even higher among self-identified conservatives (67 percent) and Tea Party supporters (71 percent).

But he is not completely made of Teflon: 30 percent of Republicans said the allegations made them less likely to vote for Cain, and that 30 percent has made a difference in his overall poll numbers since October. His support tumbled from 28 percent to 15 percent among women, and from 32 percent to 19 percent among Tea Party supporters.

Gingrich Gets New Life

The biggest story, however, was Gingrich, who has begun to establish himself as the latest anti-Romney candidate.

Romney has always been near the top of the polls since the campaign began, but a series of more conservative candidates have risen and fallen as his top challengers. First it was Michele Bachmann, who won the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa in August. Then it was Rick Perry, who shot to the top of the polls within a week of entering the race. When Perry crashed in late September, Cain took over, and now Gingrich is poised to take Cain's place if the harassment allegations do stick.

Even if he doesn't end up posing a serious challenge to Romney, Gingrich's recovery since a series of staff resignations left his campaign for dead earlier this year has been nothing short of miraculous, although he has had a lot of help from his fellow conservative candidates, none of whom have been able to sustain an effective campaign for more than a month or so.