|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Polls: Key Senate races close
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican and Democratic candidates are running especially close races in four key Senate contests going into Tuesday's midterm elections, a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds. Democrats and Republicans could end up trading seats in Missouri and Arkansas, where incumbents face strong challenges. In Colorado and South Dakota, races are considered a statistical dead heat. More than 600 likely voters were interviewed in each state between Wednesday and Saturday. Each of the CNN/USA Today/Gallup polls have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. In South Dakota, incumbent Democrat Tim Johnson is trailing Rep. John Thune, his GOP challenger, by three points. Pollsters interviewed 685 likely voters in that survey. Each candidate is receiving extensive support from the highest levels of their parties: President Bush was to campaign for Thune Sunday night, while the state's senior senator -- Majority Leader Tom Daschle -- stumped for Johnson on Sunday. In Arkansas, a poll of 616 likely voters found Democrat David Pryor leading incumbent Republican Tim Hutchinson by a margin of 51 percent to 43 percent. Hutchinson, the first Republican senator from Arkansas since Reconstruction, is considered the most vulnerable GOP senator this year. Pryor, Arkansas' attorney general, is the son of former U.S. Sen. David Pryor, a popular Democrat. In Missouri, Democratic incumbent Jean Carnahan is trailing former U.S. Rep. Jim Talent 48 percent to 44 percent. Carnahan, the widow of former Gov. Mel Carnahan, was appointed to serve for two years after her husband's posthumous victory over then-Sen. John Ashcroft in 2000. The winner will serve the remainder of the six-year term Carnahan won. Under Missouri law, the winner will assume the post immediately after the election. In Colorado, GOP Sen. Wayne Allard leads Democratic challenger Tom Strickland by just two points in a poll of 619 likely voters. Allard is seeking a second term against Strickland, whom he beat in 1996 for the seat.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
