A new poll shows Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Republican Mark Kirk running neck-and-neck in their race for the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama.
CHICAGO (AP) — A new poll shows Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Republican Mark Kirk running neck-and-neck in their race for the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama.
The race is one of the nation’s most closely watched November election contests because a loss would be embarrassing for Democrats and a coup for Republicans.
The Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll published Friday showed Kirk and Giannoulias both with the support of 34 percent of the likely voters surveyed, but a large percentage of voters are still undecided.
The poll found 6 percent of likely voters support Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones, while Libertarian Party candidate Mike Labno had 3 percent in the survey. Another 22 percent of voters were undecided.
The poll follows months of bruising campaign by Giannoulias and Kirk, who are both weighted down by political baggage.
Giannoulias has had to answer questions about business practices at his family’s now-failed Chicago bank, where he was an executive before being elected Illinois treasurer in 2006.
Kirk, a five-term congressman and Naval Reserve officer, has acknowledged embellishing his military record, including claiming a prestigious award he didn’t win.
Both candidates have strengths and weaknesses with voters. The poll showed Giannoulias trailing Kirk, 34 percent to 23 percent, among so-called independent voters. But Giannoulias had a huge edge over Kirk, 58 percent to 3 percent, in support from black voters.
Also, more Republicans were backing Kirk than Democrats were behind Giannoulias. The poll showed two-thirds of self-proclaimed Democrats supported Giannoulias, while nearly three-fourths of people who called themselves Republican backed Kirk.
The telephone poll of 600 registered voters statewide had a margin of error of 4 percentage points. Those who were polled were picked in a random sample and were questioned between Aug. 28 and Sept. 1.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.