A new poll has gone out on the AP wire and was published online at the
Fort Wayne News-Sentinel.
It finds former Representative Baron Hill (D) leading Rep. Mike Sodrel (R) 46-40, with 14 undecided. Libertarian was not included in the poll.
Details on the flip.
Democrat Baron Hill has built a small lead over Republican Rep. Mike Sodrel in their third campaign against each other for southern Indiana's 9th District congressional seat, according to a new poll.
The poll results released Tuesday night by Indianapolis television station WISH found 46 percent of those interviewed supported Hill in his bid for a return to Congress and 40 percent backed Sodrel. Fourteen percent were undecided.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. Support for Libertarian candidate Eric Schansberg was not measured.
National Democratic and Republican officials are targeting the district, which stretches along the Ohio River from the Ohio state line nearly to Evansville and north to Bloomington. Former first lady Barbara Bush visited Sellersburg on Tuesday to speak at a Sodrel fundraiser, the latest in a string of national figures who have campaigned for Hill or Sodrel.
The poll found both Sodrel and Hill winning overwhelming support within their own parties - 85 percent of Democrats backed Hill and 76 percent of Republicans backed Sodrel. The difference is that among independents 52 percent said they supported Hill and 29 percent preferred Sodrel.
The telephone poll of 400 likely voters was conducted Sept. 5-8 by Maryland-based Research 2000.
Hill represented the district for three terms, winning the 2002 election over Sodrel. But Sodrel defeated Hill in 2004 with 49.5 percent of the vote, the smallest winning percentage in the country for that year's congressional races.
I am a volunteer for this race, and can tell you we're excited to put Baron back on the Hill! After losing this one in the final weeks of 2004, mostly due to shameful attacks on Baron's family and faith, Southern Indiana Democrats are united to make a statement on our values.
Baron is a great guy and a great candidate. He's known as a moderate/conservative "Blue Bog" yet there are issues where he shows more progressive backbone than most Dems I know.
There is no better steward of the environment in Southern Indiana. 100% rating from the LCV in his last year in Congress, earned him an endorsement. And in the face of two opponents that doubted Global Warming in the last debate, Baron looked in the camera and told the truth to the people of Southern Indiana.
I hope to write 2-3 diaries in the near future to talk about the race: who Baron is, and about the Right-Wing 527s we have to fight against.
Please help out Baron if you can. This may be the big Top-Tier race, but Baron needs money to fight the false accusations from shaddy 527s and Sodrels negative ads.
Bring Back Baron!