Rasmussen has released a new Delaware poll showing Coons up by 11%, 51% to 40%. Before you start hyperventilating, this is actually an improvement in Coons numbers from the last Rasmussen poll. I think this is saying that there has not been much change in the numbers since the debate, but O’Donnell’s people are already spinning this as a “momentum” story.
Democrat Chris Coons holds an 11-point lead over Republican Christine O’Donnell in Delaware’s U.S. Senate race following the candidates’ debate Wednesday night.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Delaware shows Coons earning 51% of the vote, while O’Donnell draws 40% support. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate in the race, and four percent (4%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The contest remains Solid Democrat in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Senate Balance of Power rankings.
Coons posted a similar 49% to 40% lead three weeks ago when Congressman Mike Castle whom O’Donnell defeated in the state GOP Primary was still pondering a write-in candidacy. Five percent (5%) supported Castle at that time. Castle has since announced that he will not run but has not endorsed O’Donnell, a conservative activist who remains a long-shot candidate in the traditionally moderate state.
O’Donnell looks to be stuck at around the 40% mark. We’ll have to wait to see another poll to see if Coons’s lead is really shrinking.