Hagan puts out more poll numbers
This latest news release from Sen. Kay Hagan's campaign provides more fodder to throw on the exactly-how-close-is-the-Hagan-Dole-race pile:
GREENSBORO, N.C. – State Senator and U.S. Senate Nominee Kay Hagan (D-Guilford) is within striking distance of incumbent Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole, according to an internal poll, the details of which were released by Kay’s campaign. More importantly, support for the one-term Senator is soft, and Kay has much more room to grow than Dole.The poll shows Kay with 44 percent in an initial head to head matchup against the first term legislator, while Dole polls at 48 percent. The difference is well within the poll's margin of error, and confirms the results from four independent polls depicting the race as one of the most competitive in the 2008 cycle.
"This poll confirms what we have been hearing all across the state -- North Carolina needs new leadership in Washington, and while Elizabeth Dole is a nice person, she's not an effective leader," said Hagan Communications Director Colleen Flanagan. "Elizabeth Dole is vulnerable because on issue after issue, she has sided with lobbyists and their special interests, failed to achieve any real legislative success, and played partisan politics to the determent of North Carolinians."
A majority of voters in this poll confirmed what Kay and her campaign has been hearing all across the state - voters know that Dole hasn't been working for them, she's been working for Bush and the special interests, and it's time for new leadership in Washington.While Dole possesses nearly universal name recognition, the poll indicates that Dole’s support is soft, with only 48% of respondents saying they would vote to reelect her. "There are few voters who don’t already know [Dole], making it difficult for her to expand her support," wrote Kay’s pollsters John Anzalone and Jeff Liszt in the polling memo. In addition, her favorable/unfavorable ratio was less than 2:1, a telling statistic for an incumbent.
"Even more telling than how competitive this race is, is how much support Kay receives once voters know more about her and her record of results in North Carolina," Flanagan said. "Our vigorous campaign schedule and grassroots activities like canvassing, phonebanking, creating a statewide network of all-volunteer county and campus captains will only help to spread the word about Kay and her ideas to help fix what’s broken in Washington."
The poll surveyed 800 likely 2008 general election voters in North Carolina and was conducted May 14-21 by Anzalone-Liszt Research. The margin of error of the poll was ±3.5%.
