Posted: 09/17/2014 06:00:17 AM MDT
Updated: 09/17/2014 06:03:10 AM MDT
Republican Bob Beauprez holds a 10-point lead against Gov. John Hickenlooper, according to a new poll, marking a major shift in a governor's race deadlocked for months.
The Quinnipiac University Poll, set for release Wednesday, found that 50 percent of likely voters support or lean toward Beauprez and 40 percent back the Democratic incumbent.
The Libertarian and Green Party candidates each took 3 percent with another 4 percent undecided or supporting another challenger. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 percent.
'Pundits were predicting that Gov. Hickenlooper faced a close race for re-election,' said Tim Malloy, an assistant poll director. 'Instead, he's got a mad dash to make up a double-digit deficit.'
The poll is the first to give the Republican an edge outside the margins, let alone a double-digit advantage, and could upend the race in the final weeks before mail-in voting starts Oct. 14.
Its findings diverge significantly from a Denver Post poll of likely voters conducted two days earlier that showed Hickenlooper at 45 percent and Beauprez at 43 percent, a statistical tie within the margin of error.
An early September NBC News/Marist poll also found a close race with Hickenlooper at 43 percent and Beauprez at 39 percent, a lead just outside the margins.
Neither The Post nor the NBC News/Marist poll included voters who were leaning toward one side or another in the candidates' totals.
In the Quinnipiac poll, Beauprez's support is coming from independent, or unaffiliated voters, the poll found, who back him 50 percent to 37 percent. The likely women voters Democrats need to give them an advantage are split evenly on the top two candidates, while men overwhelmingly favor the Republican.
The only silver lining in the numbers for Democrats: about one in five likely voters say they may change their minds in the final weeks.
Roxane White, Hickenlooper's chief of staff, acknowledged before the poll's release that the governor faced a close bid, influence by the political swings in Washington.
'John is facing a different political mood in the country, and I think we have voters in Colorado that have a decision to make: Do we want to be more like Colorado, or do we want to be more like D.C.?' she said.
John Frank: 303-954-2409, jfrank@denverpost.com Staff writer Joey Bunch contributed to this story.
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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