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New poll: 21st House race in a near dead heat as Doheny closes gap with Owens

Posted 11/1/12

Republican candidate Matt Doheny has picked up support among independents and among home-ground voters to close the gap in the race for the 21st Congressional District seat. Democrat incumbent Rep. …

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New poll: 21st House race in a near dead heat as Doheny closes gap with Owens

Posted

Republican candidate Matt Doheny has picked up support among independents and among home-ground voters to close the gap in the race for the 21st Congressional District seat.

Democrat incumbent Rep. Bill Owens’ double-digit lead in September has been whittled down to a one-point lead just a few days before the election, according to a new poll released today by the Siena Research Institute of Siena College .

Seven weeks ago, in a Siena poll from Sept. 10, Owens stood at 49 percent to Doheny’s 36 percent, a difference of 13 percent, among likely voters in the district who were asked, “If the election were held today, who would you vote for?”

Today, Owens’ tally is 44 percent and Doheny’s is at 43 percent.

Among voters not registered with any party, the sought-after independent voters, Doheny now leads 43 to 41 percent, when in the September poll, Owens led 54 to 24 percent.

Owens, from Plattsburgh, still maintains a strong lead in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton and Herkimer counties, 53 to 37 percent, but Doheny has picked up some support there since September, when the tally was 54 to 32 percent.

Meanwhile Doheny, from the Watertown area, still trails Owens in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties, 47 to 44 percent, but has improved his count from the September poll, to 44 from 32 percent.

Owens still has the support of 20 percent of Republicans in the district, while Doheny has about 10 percent of Democrats in his corner.

Donald Hassig of Colton, who is running on the Green Party line, dropped from six percent to four percent.

Nine percent of voters still say they don’t know who they will vote for, the same amount as in the September Siena poll.