A few days ago I wrote a brief biography of Arizona Senate candidate Dr. Richard Carmona. At the time, I cited a poll from PPP showing that Carmona was 13 points behind likely Republican candidate Jeff Flake. PPP also stated that:
The positive flip side to that is that voters who know both Carmona and Flake strongly favor Carmona, suggesting that as Carmona continues to campaign and become a known commodity to the rest of the electorate, he can close the gap. The improvement in his name identification so far has been entirely with Democrats, however.
A new
PPP poll (pdf) released yesterday seems to support their prediction.
If the November U.S. Senate election were
held today, and the candidates were Democrat
Richard Carmona and Republican Jeff Flake,
who would you vote for?
Richard Carmona 41%
Jeff Flake 43%
Undecided 16%
In the new poll, Carmona is only two points behind Flake in a hypothetical ballot. I think it is time for us to recognize this as a top tier race. The more people learn about Carmona, the more they like him. Likewise, the more people learn about Jeff Flake, the less they like him. Carmona is sure to come up against a lot of SuperPAC money. Let's make sure he has the support to fight back. You can donate
here.
The poll also has some other interesting numbers out of Arizona.
Which ONE of the following statements do you
agree with most concerning same-sex couples:
Gay and lesbian couples should have the
same legal right to marry as do a man and
woman; Gay and lesbian couples should be
allowed to form a civil union giving them the
same legal rights as marriage, but it should not
be called marriage; Or there should be no legal
recognition of a relationship between gay and
lesbian couples?
Gay couples should have same legal
marriage rights as man + woman 41%
Gay couples should be allowed civil unions
but not "marriage" 28%
There should be no legal recognition of gay
couples 29%
Not sure 1%
69% of Arizonans support some kind of legal recognition for gay and lesbian couples, with 41% supporting marriage outright.
The poll also has Obama only three points behind Romney, with 5% undecided.