The new Rasmussen poll of Arizona shows Sen. John McCain expanding his lead against his challenger in the Republican primary, former Rep. J.D. Hayworth. But he’s not quite in the clear just yet.
The numbers: McCain 52%, Hayworth 40%. The survey of likely GOP primary voters has a ±4.5% margin of error. Last month, McCain’s lead was a much narrower 47%-42%. The TPM Poll Average gives McCain a lead of 52.7%-37.4%. Since then, McCain has gone further to the right on immigration, backing Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigration law and running an ad promising to “complete the danged fence.”
Rasmussen writes: “The 2008 Republican Presidential nominee cannot be comforted by the fact that his level of support in early primary polling is similar to the numbers for Arlen Specter. Specter, defeated by Joe Sestak, led in just about all early polling but could never get much above the 50% level of support. That provided Joe Sestak with a chance to defeat the 30-year veteran of the Senate yesterday.”
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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