A new poll out has Claire McCaskill up 51% to 42% in Missouri. Great news. This is supposed to be one of the closest races in the country and is crucial to Democratic hopes of taking over the senate. Go Claire.
From the McCaskill Website:
In an election for United States Senator from Missouri today, 10/12/06, Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill leads Republican incumbent Jim Talent 51% to 42%, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KSDK-TV St. Louis and KCTV-TV Kansas City. Since an identical SurveyUSA poll 4 weeks ago, on 9/14/06, McCaskill has gained 3 points and Talent has lost 5 points. McCaskill's advantage has grown from 1 point to 9 points.
The election is in 26 days, on 11/7/06. Most of the movement in the race comes from Independent voters, who supported Talent by 12 points in September but now support McCaskill by 13 points, a 25-point swing. 91% of Democrats vote Democrat. 87% of Republicans vote Republican.
McCaskill has made big gains among male voters: Talent leads by 1 point among men, a 14-point drop from September. McCaskill leads by 18 points among women, a 2-point gain. McCaskill leads by 50 points among black voters, by 4 among white voters. 69% of those who support Amendment 2, the Stem Cell Initiative, vote for McCaskill. 82% of those who oppose Amendment 2 vote for Talent.
Talent leads in the Ozarks. McCaskill leads in the rest of MO. In Central MO, McCaskill has gone from 12 points behind to 16 points ahead, a 28-point swing. Talent defeated Democrat Jean Carnahan by 1 point in 2002, 2 years after she had been named to fill the U.S. Senate seat of her posthumously elected husband Mel Carnahan. McCaskill, who has been Missouri State Auditor since 1998, ran for Missouri Governor in 2004 and lost to Republican Matt Blunt by 3 points.
The U.S. Senate seat is one of the, if not perhaps the most, contested in the nation. A Democrat win may not guarantee the Democrats control of the U.S. Senate, but a Republican win would almost certainly ensure that the Democrats have no chance to capture the Senate in 2006.