Republican Roy Moore has regained his footing in Alabama’s heated Senate race, and has jumped out to a lead over Democrat Doug Jones in a new public opinion poll.
The survey, from JMC Analytics, showed Moore led Jones 48 percent to 43 percent, and 4 percent said they would vote for someone else as a write-in. The numbers show Moore, 70, is weathering the storm of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including from a woman who says the retired judge targeted her when he was in his 30s and she was just 14 years-old.
When the remaining undecided voters were pushed to decide, Moore led Jones 49 percent to 44 percent, and 5 percent said they would write in another candidate. The survey was conducted Monday and Tuesday through telephone calls to landlines. The error margin was 3.8 percentage points. JMC’s polling of the Sept. 26 GOP primary runoff, in which Moore defeated appointed Sen. Luther Strange, was on the mark.
The Dec. 12 special election will decide who will be a permanent successor to Republican Jeff Sessions, who resigned in January to become U.S. attorney general. But Senate Republicans have said if Moore wins, they would immediately start the process of trying to remove him because of the sexual misconduct charges that have been leveled against him.
If there’s a silver lining for the Democrats, it’s that the generic ballot gauging which party voters would prefer control this Senate seat only gives the GOP a slight edge, 49-46 percent. That’s hardly an enthusiastic endorsement for the GOP in a ruby red state where no Democrat holds statewide office and that has enthusiastically backed President Trump.
