Independent Survey by Majority Watch: Massa 52; Kuhl 40
Corning, NY - Retired Navy Commander Eric Massa is leading incumbent Rep. Randy Kuhl by a margin of 12 percentage points in a new poll conducted by the independent organization Majority Watch. The poll showed Massa leading in the race with 52% of likely voters preferring him compared to only 40% selecting Kuhl.
Majority Report has polled NY-29. Eric is over the 50% mark.
Majority Watch (RT Strategies-Constituent Dynamics)
http://www.majoritywatch.com/
New York 29
Interviews: October 15-16, 2006
Validated Responses: 1,016
MoE: +/- 3.07%
John "Randy" Kuhl Republican Incumbent: 40%
Eric Massa Democratic Challenger: 52%
Head to Head: Kuhl strong 32%, Massa strong 41%
IBush approval: 28% approve, 63% disapprove
Partisan identity:
43% Republican
28% Independent
29% Democrat
So Eric must be getting most all Democrats, a goodly number of Independents, and maybe some Republicans.
Among voters in the northern half of the district, the Rochester suburbs and parts of Ontario County, Massa leads by 26%. In the traditionally Republican Southern Tier, Kuhl still maintains his advantage, but only by a single point. These findings show strong improvement for Massa who was in a statistical tie with Kuhl according to internal polling conducted in late September. In the intervening weeks, both candidates have dramatically increased their media presence on both radio and television and have participated in a series of five public debates.
"We knew from earlier polling that name recognition was our biggest challenge," said Massa's Campaign Manager, Mike Nolan. Previous data had indicated that voters familiar with both Massa and Kuhl preferred the challenger by a margin of 2 to 1. "The voters are tired of Randy Kuhl," continued Nolan. "Once they get a chance to hear from Eric Massa they overwhelmingly support him."
The poll of 1,022 voters in New York's 29th District took place on October 15th - 16th and also surveyed party identification and approval of President Bush's job performance. A link to detailed survey results is available online at MassaforCongress.