The two Democrats running for Connecticut governor could defeat any of the three Republican candidates in the November election, a new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows, The Associated Press reports.
The late William A. O’Neill was the last Democrat to serve as governor of the state.
“The Democrats haven’t won a race for governor in Connecticut in 24 years,” said Quinnipiac Poll Director Douglas Schwartz.
“Could this be their year?”
The battle between Dan Malloy and Ned Lamont appears to be tightening. Lamont holds a lead of nine percentage points over Malloy among likely Democratic primary voters.
The same poll shows the endorsed Republican, Greenwich businessman Tom Foley, leads his GOP rivals by a wide margin among likely Republican voters in the Aug. 10 primary.
Foley, who has been criticized by Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele and Hartford-area business advocate Oz Griebel for two past arrests and other issues concerning his professional background, receives 48 percent of the support among likely Republican primary voters. Fedele garners 13 percent and Griebel, 7 percent.
Thirty-two percent remain undecided.
This marks the first time in the 2010 election that Quinnipiac has surveyed likely voters. They were selected from lists of people who’ve voted in the past. Schwartz said the numbers should not be compared to earlier polls of registered Republicans.
Schwartz said Foley’s arrests – one involving an incident with his former wife and the other in a car accident – don’t appear to have affected voters’ opinions. Fifty-five percent of likely Republican primary voters said they don’t make a difference in how they’ll vote on Aug. 10 and 48 percent said they believe the issue is a private matter.
“So Foley has been unharmed and voters still don’t know much about Fedele or Griebel,” Schwartz said.
The poll shows Lamont, a businessman from Greenwich, leading Malloy, the endorsed Democrat and former Stamford mayor, 46 to 37 percent among likely Democratic voters. Past Quinnipiac surveys of just registered Democrats gave Lamont a larger lead in the race. Since that time Malloy has begun running television campaign ads.
Sixteen percent of the Democratic voters remain undecided.
“This race could go down to the wire,” Schwartz said.
The survey confirms Malloy is building momentum, his campaign said.
“As people get to know Dan, they like him,” said Dan Kelly, Malloy’s campaign manager, who urged Lamont to reconsider participating in a second television debate considering how the race has narrowed.
The survey was conducted July 7-13. During that time, Foley has been in the news seeking a court injunction to stop Fedele from receiving more than $2 million in public campaign funds. Foley, who opposes public financing of campaigns, has said he believes Fedele and his running mate did not legally qualify for the money from the Citizens Election Fund. The state Supreme Court is hearing arguments next week.
Quinnipiac surveyed 1,367 Connecticut registered voters. Those questions have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. In separate surveys of 668 likely Democratic primary voters and 854 likely Republican primary voters, the margins of sampling error are plus or minus 3.8 and 3.4 percentage points respectively.
