The new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll of the Kentucky Senate race gives Republican nominee Rand Paul only a narrow lead over Democratic state Attorney General Jack Conway — but it doesn’t immediately appear that Paul’s comments about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are hurting him.
The numbers: Paul 44%, Conway 41%. The survey of likely voters has a ±4% margin of error. It might be tempting to think that Paul is having a fallout from his controversial statements opposing laws against racial discrimination by private businesses — but on the other hand, this result is essentially unchanged from the pre-primary R2K poll that gave Paul a lead of 42%-39%. The TPM Poll Average gives Paul a lead of 47.5%-38.2%.
Kos writes: “This race’s big battleground will be independent voters — Paul is currently winning them 42-31, with 27 percent undecided, and Democrats, where Conway is only getting 75 percent to Paul’s 7 Percent, with 18 percent undecided. Remember, this is Kentucky, where a significant number of voters who vote Dem in statewide elections vote GOP for federal races. Paul has already consolidated GOP support, winning them 86-6, with just 8 percent undecided.”
Late Update: This post has been edited from the original, after a correction to the post at Daily Kos.
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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