DSCC internal:
The Louisiana Senate race is a 10-point contest, with Republican Sen. David Vitter currently drawing 48 percent of the vote to Democratic Rep. Charlie Melancon’s 38 percent, according to a poll commissioned by the DSCC. The survey, conducted by the Democratic firm Bennett, Petts & Normington, suggests that a month after both candidates began running attack ads, Vitter holds a solid advantage but hasn’t yet locked up reelection. Ten points is a quite a bit for any Democrat to make up in this environment, and Melancon is no exception. Still, the congressman will have the money to compete in the final sprint and Vitter has the kind of built-in vulnerabilities – to put it delicately – that make it possible to imagine an upset.
When three minor candidates are included in the poll, they draw about evenly from Vitter and Melancon, leaving Vitter at 44 percent, Melancon at 35 percent, Libertarian Randall Hayes at 2 percent and independents Mike Spears and Ernest Wooton at 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively. Those numbers put the race somewhere in the middle of the short Democratic target list, below the Missouri and Kentucky Senate races, but creeping ahead of Ohio and North Carolina. The poll tested 800 likely voters between Sept. 13 and 16.
http://www.politico.com/morningscore/0910/morningscore172.html
