According to the Reuters news service, a poll released by Reuters and pollster John Zogby on Thursday shows U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman up 20 percent over Democratic anti-war challenger Ned Lamont—a far cry from the 2 percent lead Lieberman held in Zogby’s last poll released just six days ago.
According to the Reuters news story, Lieberman—running as an independent—has a 53 percent to 33 percent lead over Lamont. Lieberman, a three-term Democratic incumbent, lost the party primary in August after Lamont attacked his support for the Iraq war. Further details of the 20-percent overall margin were not available in the Reuters story. But according to Zogby’s Web site, the new data shows Lamont continuing to lead among Democrats by a 51 to 41 percent margin. But among Republicans, Lieberman leads 64 percent to Lamont’s 15 percent. The only Republican candidate in the race, Alan Schlesinger, has 4 percent overall vote and 12 percent of his party’s vote. The poll included at least 600 live telephone interviews with likely voters and has a 4.1 percent margin of error. In comments accompanying poll results on his site, Zogby said Lieberman had led by a substantial margin just after his primary defeat, “but then took a dive and recently bottomed out. Clearly, he has now begun to surge again.” The most recent poll was conducted between Sept. 25 and Oct. 2. The poll released six days ago put Lamont at 44 percent overall to Lieberman’s 46 percent, within striking distance. That poll had a 4.2 percent margin of error.“It looks like Democrats will make gains, but it will be very difficult for them to take control,” Zogby told Reuters. “It is going to take an awful lot of work for them to pick up six seats.“Other polls have given Lieberman a smaller lead in the high-profile race, which will not have a bearing on the Senate balance of power. Lieberman has promised to vote with Democrats if he wins his race as an independent.Click here to see the results on Zogby’s Web site.