A new poll is out showing Herman Cain, whose campaign is battling off reports of sexual harassment claims, still with a commanding lead in the Republican party, but could this just be the candidate's high water mark? Quinnipiac's latest election survey, shows Cain with a commanding lead over his Republican rivals for the party's presidential nomination, with 30 percent support, 7 points better than second-place Romney. Their release sums up the findings:

Former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain leads the Republican presidential primary field with 30 percent, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 23 percent, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 10 percent and Texas Gov. Rick Perry with 8 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. No other candidate tops 7 percent. 

Some may point to this data as backing up the counter-intuitive notion that the story of Cain's resurfaced sexual harassment accusations from his time as head of the National Restaurant Association. As The Atlantic Wire's Elspeth Reeve noted: conservatives who've ditched other candidates may not be quick to abandon Herman Cain. But if the scandal continues, this could also mark the peak of Cain's meteoric rise in the primary campaign: most of this survey was done before the story broke on late on Sunday night, Oct. 30. Quinnipiac says its survey was conducted between Oct. 25 and 31. 

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Erik Hayden