WA: Cantwell Leading McGavick 54% to 42% (Survey USA)

[Frodo]

The other poll conducted of this race has apparently already been posted, so I am doing this one:

Cantwell still leads, but McGavick closing gap;
Republicans 'come home' as election nears

By NEIL MODIE
P-I REPORTER

Two independent polls on Washington's U.S. Senate race this week show Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell still in the lead but Republican challenger Mike McGavick gaining on her.

According to a SurveyUSA poll, Cantwell is favored by 54 percent of the 481 likely voters queried, McGavick by 42 percent and three minor-party and independent candidates by a combined 4 percent, with only 1 percent undecided. The survey was conducted between last Thursday and Monday for KING/5, which reported on it Wednesday night.

It showed that McGavick, a former insurance executive, had shrunk to 12 percent the 17 percent gap by which he trailed Cantwell 3 1/2 weeks earlier, when the first-term senator had 53 percent to his 36 percent. The new survey had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

A similar tightening of the race was shown in a poll of 500 likely voters, taken by Rasmussen Reports Sept. 20 and released Monday. It had Cantwell leading by only 6 percent, 48 percent for her to 42 percent for her challenger, 3 percent for other candidates and 7 percent undecided. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

For McGavick, it was a big improvement from a Rasmussen survey two weeks earlier that showed him trailing by 17 points, 52 percent to 35 percent. And the new poll showed Cantwell at just under 50 percent -- a danger sign for an incumbent -- although SurveyUSA has her remaining above 50.

[Eraserhead]

If this is McGavick closing the gap, I hope he keeps closing it. The last Ras. poll only had him down 6.