Political polls should always be treated with a grain of salt. In general, it is better to watch the trends in these things over a period of time rather than treat each one as particularly meaningful revelation. That said there is an interesting trend in the Connecticut Senate race: Ned Lamont appears to be losing steam and is not closing the gap with Joe Lieberman.
HAMDEN, Conn. (AP) – Sen. Joe Lieberman has a 10-point advantage over Democrat Ned Lamont among likely Connecticut voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.
Lieberman, a three-term Democrat running as an independent after losing the party nomination in a primary, is favored by 49 percent to 39 percent over Lamont in the three-way race. Republican Alan Schlesinger trails with 5 percent.
The race has tightened slightly since an Aug. 17 poll that showed Lieberman leading 53 percent to 41 percent.
"Ned Lamont has lost momentum," said poll director Douglas Schwartz said. "He's gained only two points in six weeks. He's going to have to do something different in the next six weeks or … Lieberman stays in for another six years."
Even worse news for Lamont is in the breakdown of numbers:
The Quinnipiac poll showed that Lieberman has higher favorability ratings among likely voters, 51 percent to Lamont's 31 percent. While Lamont has slightly higher favorability numbers among Democrats (47 percent to 43 percent), Lieberman far outdistances his challenger among likely Republican and unaffiliated voters. Seventy percent of Republicans view Lieberman favorably compared to 12 percent for Lamont, and 48 percent of independent voters view Lieberman favorably compared to 30 percent for Lamont.
Again, this is all not particularly meaningful as a single data point. But one thing is for sure. If Lamont loses and if the Democrats fail to take either house, the netroots will be effectively broken. Because you can absolutely bet the farm that their all out assault on a reliable Democrat and subsequent waste of resources WILL be blamed for the loss. I've been writing about this particular race for a long time now and have always warned this was a horrible strategic move.
