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Fisher leads Brunner in Dem Senate primary; many voters undecided
Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher leads Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner among likely voters in the race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, but 40 percent are undecided, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday, March 30.
Also, the poll, released with five weeks to go in the primary, found that 65 percent of those who back a candidate say they might change their mind.
Overall, Fisher leads 33-26 percent, with the 40 percent undecided. The winner will face Republican Rob Portman, a former U.S. House member from suburban Cincinnati, in the general election. Portman is unopposed for the GOP nomination.
“Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher is ahead as the candidates enter the home stretch, but the lead is not that large and the size of the undecided vote with a relatively short period until primary election day underscores the volatility of the contest,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a press release.
A big plus for Fisher appears to be voters’ belief that he’d have a better chance of defeating Portman, a former budget director and U.S. trade representative for President George W. Bush.
By about a two-to-one margin - 37 to 18 percent - voters say Fisher would be more likely than Brunner to win the general election. Still, 42 percent say they don’t know.
With so many undecided voters, a key factor in the next five weeks will be the candidates’ ability to get their messages out to undecided voters. According to the most recent campaign finance reports, Fisher is much better equipped with campaign cash for possible TV ads. He had $1.8 million on hand, compared to $60,859 for Brunner. Brunner, however, has said she can overcome this disadvantage with a strong grassroots effort.
The poll, released on the same day that early voting starts across the state, finds that many Democrats don’t know much about either candidate.
Fisher, active in statewide politics for nearly two decades, gets a favorable rating from 33 percent, with 8 percent unfavorable, but 56 percent say they don’t know enough about him to judge.
Brunner, meanwhile, has a 24-7 favorable-unfavorable rating, but about two thirds - 67 percent- say they don’t know enough about her to have an opinion.
The poll was taken from Thursday, March 25 to Sunday, March 28, with 978 Ohio likely Democratic primary voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
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By Reality
March 30, 2010 12:15 PM | Link to this
It doesn’t matter who wins the Democratic Primary, all the D’s need to go after the crappy healthcare bill they passed. What happened to real reform. 2010 proved that you can’t trust the Democratic Party to do anything but make it worse.