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Democrats lead in final election poll Saturday, Oct 28, 2006 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Democrats may want to break out the brooms on Nov. 7 - not the ones left over from Halloween - as a new poll shows the party sweeping races for the top constitutional offices. Mike Beebe leads Republican Asa Hutchinson by 18 points in the governor's race in the third and final Arkansas News Bureau/Stephens Media poll of the election season. The poll, conducted by Opinion Research Associates of Little Rock, shows Beebe at 56 percent, compared to 38 percent for Hutchinson. The survey of 500 registered voters - 125 from each of the four congressional districts - was taken Sunday through Thursday and has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. Green Party candidate Jim Lendall and independent candidate Rod Bryan each have 1 percent in the poll. Beebe has led by a wide margin since polling began this summer, leading 52-31 in an August poll and 53-35 in September. "Unlike August and September, when Beebe was in the low 50s, it seems now like he's really trying to pull away," said Ernie Oakleaf of Opinion Research. "I think the trend lines are certainly in Beebe's favor." A poll this week by SurveyUSA for KTHV-Channel 11 in Little Rock has Beebe leading by 20 percentage points, 58 percent to 38 percent, and the Arkansas Poll done by the University of Arkansas, also release this week, has Beebe with 51 percent to Hutchinson's 38 percent. Beebe's campaign spokesman Zac Wright said Friday that the candidate is "honored by the overwhelming, grass-roots support he's received from every part of the state." David Kinkade, Hutchinson's campaign spokesman, said the Republican hopeful was taking the poll and others he's seen "with a huge grain of salt, given the wide variance we've seen in the results over the last few weeks." "Credible independent polls continue to show this race as close, as do our own internal polls," Kinkade said. In the race for lieutenant governor, Democrat Bill Halter holds a 51 percent-34 percent lead over Republican state Sen. Jim Holt in the latest poll. Holt's percentage remained the same as in September while Halter's support dropped by 2 percentage points. Attorney general candidate Dustin McDaniel was the only Democrat in a race for constitutional office who fell below majority support. The poll showed McDaniel with 49 percent to 30 percent for Republican challenger Gunner DeLay - still a 19-point lead. Oakleaf noted that McDaniel's lead over DeLay has dropped since August when the Democrat received 54 percent and the Republican received 22 percent. An Opinion Research poll in September had McDaniel with 53 percent and DeLay with 28 percent. "This is not a race that's getting as much attention as the governor's race and it does seem to be tightening up," Oakleaf said. Secretary of State Charlie Daniels, the Democrat, holds the biggest lead in races polled - 56 percent to 27 percent for Republican Jim Lagrone. Daniels lead is similar to one he had in the September poll. |
