A new poll has Democratic Congressional candidate Bennion Spencer within 9 points of Republican Jason Chaffetz in Utah's third district.
If the election were held today Jason Chaffetz would receive 39 percent, Bennion Spencer would receive 30 percent, with 31 percent of voters undecided.
The poll of 400 registered third district voters was conducted by Anthony Brown & Associates Sept. 22-24 and has a margin of error of 4.9 percent.
An earlier poll showed, conducted the week after the Republican National Convention, showed Chaffetz with a commanding lead of 60-18. However, in the weeks following the poll, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News published articles criticizing Chaffetz' immigration policy of 'tent cities for illegal immigrants' which has seemingly eroded Chaffetz' lead. Congressman Mike Honda and the Japanese American Citizens League have issued statements criticizing Chaffetz' immigration policy.
Spencer this week also picked up endorsements from Congressman Jim Matheson, the United Educators Association and the highly coveted National Farmers Union. While considered a very red district, much of Utah's third district is rural, with a highly agricultural-based economy.
The independent poll was conducted by polling voters in seven counties based on the total number of votes cast in Utah's third district Congressional race in the last Presidential election year. Nearly 273,000 voters cast ballots in the 2004 general election Congressional race in Utah's third district. 48 percent (130,465) of those votes were cast in Salt Lake County, 43 percent (116,487) in Utah County, 3 percent in San Pete (8,282) and Sevier (7,491), 2 percent in Millard (4,805), and 1 percent (2,929) in Juab and Beaver (2,465) respectively. (Source)
Based on the percentage of 2004 voters per county, 192 voters were polled in Salt Lake County, 174 in Utah County, 12 in Sevier and San Pete counties, 8 in Millard, and 1 each in Beaver and Juab counties.
Party affiliation was not a consideration in determining voters polled.
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