New Poll Gives Malloy Slight Lead Over Foley In Connecticut Governor's Race
HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Republican challenger Tom Foley are competing for last-minute votes as new polling shows the Democratic incumbent leading slightly in the tight race.
A Quinnipiac University Poll released Monday showed 47 percent of likely voters supporting Malloy and 44 percent backing Foley. Seven percent remain undecided.
One day before Election Day, Poll Director Doug Schwartz said Malloy has seen some momentum in recent days, but the race remains too close to call.
New Poll Gives Malloy Slight Lead Over Foley In Connecticut Governor's Race
The poll did not include Independent candidate Joe Visconti, who bowed out of the race and is backing Foley. Even though Visconti has endorsed Foley, his name will still appear on the ballot.
"Contrary to conventional wisdom, independent candidate Joe Visconti's last minute exit from the governor's race doesn't look like it will help Republican Tom Foley," said Schwartz.
"He [Malloy] is doing slightly better among women than Foley is doing among men," Schwartz told WCBS 880's Fran Schneidau. "And right now, Foley is winning the independent vote just by one point. So that's kind of an indication that this race could be pointing to Malloy."
New Poll Gives Malloy Slight Lead Over Foley In Connecticut Governor's Race
The telephone survey of 926 likely voters was conducted Oct. 28-Nov. 2. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
Both Malloy and Foley were spending the day working to get out the vote.
A day after President Barack Obama made a stop in Bridgeport in an eleventh-hour push to help the incumbent in his re-election campaign, Malloy told volunteers in West Hartford it "has been a tough campaign'' but they've made progress.
Foley was in eastern Connecticut. He planned to appear later with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in Windsor Locks.
Meanwhile, more than 90,000 new voters have registered in Connecticut since Jan. 1, adding up to nearly 1.96 million people who will be eligible to vote in Tuesday's election.
Unaffiliated voters still remain the largest voting bloc, with 818,389 voters. They are followed by 712,985 registered Democrats and 407,520 registered Republicans.
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill estimated at least 55 percent of registered voters will likely go to the polls. In 2010, the last gubernatorial election, nearly 57.5 percent of 2 million active voters turned out.
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