Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., has pulled ahead of embattled Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., in yet another poll, the Republican challenger leading the incumbent 47 percent to 41 percent, according to a Quinnipiac survey released Thursday.
This latest polls means that Gardner has now led in eight of the last nine surveys examining the critical and hard-fought Senate race in Colorado.
The Quinnipiac survey, which was conducted from Oct. 3-13, polled 988 “likely voters” in the Centennial State.
Considering that Udall has made women’s “health issues” the centerpiece of his campaign, attacking Gardner at every turn for being supposedly “anti-woman,” the following data point from Quinnipiac is worth noting: “[W]omen back Udall over Gardner 49 – 40 percent. … This compares to last month’s results, with women going 46 percent for Udall and 43 percent for Gardner.”
“Men back the Republican over the Democrat 53 – 34 percent,” the report added. “Gardner gets 42 percent of independent voters to Udall’s 39 percent.”
Eighty-seven percent of polled voters say they’ve already made up their mind who they’re going to vote for, and only 12 percent say candidates still have time to change voters’ minds.
“With 19 days to go, can U.S. Sen. Mark Udall close a 6 percentage point gap in this marquee race that could tip the Senate to the GOP, or will U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner prevail?” assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll said in a statement. “There is no significant movement in the race, but a 6-point gap is more interesting than an 8-point gap. Let’s see what the next survey shows.”
Here’s the complete news release from Quinnipiac:
The latest survey showing Gardner’s apparent dominance over Udall comes just hours after Deadspin, a sports blog, published a story accusing the Republican congressman of lying about playing football in high school.
Moments after publishing the story, Gardner’s campaign and the Denver Post both produced evidence contradicting Deadspin’s claim. Even more damaging, Chuck Pfalmer, the supposed source for the Deadspin story, contradicted the blog’s central claim.
Deadspin has since published an update to their story:
