CO-Sen: Udall, Schaffer Tied In Poll

Wayne "Marriage is between one man and one woman" Allard's decision to retire has left Dems with a chance to turn purple Colorado somewhat bluer, with popular Representative Mark Udall (CO-2) preparing to face off against former Rep. Bob Schaffer (CO-4). Four years ago Schaffer lost a brusing primary battle against Pete Coors, for the opportunity to face-off against Ken Salazar in a battle to replace retiring Sen Ben Knighthorse Cambpell.

The Rocky Mountain News is reporting a new Cirulli Associates poll, putting Udall at 36%, and Schaffer at 35%, with 21% undecided and 9% "hoping someone else will join the race". (Yep, as reported by the RMN, it adds up to 101% - some might suggest that the extra 1% could be some of those Texans who haven't yet returned home from their three-month visits to their summer "cabins").

More from the RNM:

The poll, taken in mid-September, had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points. It was part of a telephone survey of 504 voters statewide on economic development sponsored by the Economic Development Council of Colorado.

snip

The poll showed Udall with 72 percent support from his own party, 6 percent from Republicans and 34 percent from the unaffiliated, while Schaffer got 68 percent support from his own party, 3 percent from Democrats and 19 percent unaffiliated.

Udall has an 11-point advantage among women and Schaffer leads by 8 points among men.

There's a good bit more in the RNM article (here) with Schaffer's top campaign consultant suggesting that the Dems are shocked by the poll, because they'd become "arrogant" after Salazar and Ritter (CO-Gov) easily defeated their Republican opponets two years ago.

At this point, Udall is well ahead in the fundraising game - Schaffer got in late and reported slightly over $700K raised in the second quarter, with no report yet on the third quarter, while Udall has reported raising a total of $3.8 million to date.