Democrat Scott Murphy is catching up with Republican Jim Tedisco in the race for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s vacated seat in New York’s 20th Congressional District, according to the new Siena Research Institute Poll. The trend lines are from the last poll released on February 26.
Republican candidate Jim Tedisco - 45 (-1)
Democratic candidate Scott Murphy - 41 (+7)
Libertarian candidate Eric Sundwall - 1 (+1)
Last month Tedisco was winning independent voters, but Murphy is winning them 43-31. (He won the nomination of the Independence Party away from Tedisco a week ago.) Murphy is actually performing better among Democrats than Tedisco is among Republicans.
Later in the poll, we have approval numbers for various national figures. Sen. Gillibrand has a 78 percent approval rating, and President Obama is next, at 65 percent. That could explain why Tedisco is fumbling to avoid saying whether he'd support the economic stimulus. Even Gov. David Paterson, tumbling in statewide polls, has a 41 approval rating to 45 disapproval.