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Laffey Takes Commanding Lead in Republican U. S. Senate Primary
RHode Island College ^ | Date Posted: August 31, 2006 | Rhode Island College

Posted on 08/31/2006 11:46:13 AM PDT by .cnI redruM

U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee may lose his seat to challenger Steve Laffey, according to a new statewide Republican primary voter poll released today by the Bureau of Government Research and Services at Rhode Island College.

The survey was conducted August 28-30, 2006, at Rhode Island College by Victor L. Profughi, director of the Bureau of Government Research and Services. It is based on a statewide random sample of 363 likely Republican primary voters in Rhode Island. The sample was proportioned among the state’s geographic regions to reflect the likely voter contribution from each portion of the state. Overall, the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.

If the September 12 primary were held today, 51 percent say they will vote for Steve Laffey, 34 percent support Senator Chafee, and 15 percent are undecided. A BGRS survey of Republican voters conducted in June had Laffey at 39 percent and Chafee at 36 percent. Chafee’s base is virtually unchanged since the June survey, while the number of Laffey supporters has grown 12 percentage points.

In the current poll, Laffey buries Chafee among male voters by nearly a 2 to 1 margin, 58 percent to 32 percent, with only 9 percent undecided. This gap has widened from 10 percent in June to 26 percent today. Among women, Chafee’s support has remained stagnant, while Laffey’s has increased. In June, 37 percent favored Chafee, compared with the current 36 percent. Laffey’s support among women has gone up from 35 percent in June to 45 percent.

Regionally, Laffey leads Chafee in Newport County (58 percent to 25 percent), in the Providence Suburbs (56 percent to 33 percent), Blackstone Valley (49 percent to 32 percent), Washington County (48 percent to 39 percent), and Western Rhode Island (42 percent to 37). Chafee is ahead only in the city of Providence (53 percent to 40 percent) and the East Bay (40 percent to 36 percent). Among unaffiliated voters, Chafee’s support has slipped from 49 percent in June to 43 percent now, while Laffey’s strength has gone up 10 percentage points (31 percent to 41 percent).

“Since early summer, Senator Chafee has been unable to expand his base of support from roughly one third of the likely Republican primary voters. The Lieberman phenomenon, where a partisan base closes ranks around the ‘true partisan’ candidate, seems to be at work in Rhode Island, as it was on the Democratic side in Connecticut. Laffey’s efforts to link Chafee with the extremely unpopular President Bush also appear to be paying off,” said Profughi.

Respondents polled were also asked who they would vote for in the Republican Primary race for Lieutenant Governor between Reginald Centracchio and Kerry King. Nearly half of those surveyed are either undecided or will not vote on this race (51 percent). Among voters, Centracchio has a 2 to 1 lead over King (31 percent to 18 percent).

The survey was conducted at a centralized telephone bank on the RIC campus on Monday, August 28 through Wednesday, August 30, between 5:00 and 9:00 p. m. The sample of 363 voters consisted of persons who identified themselves as likely Republican primary voters. Those interviewed were randomly chosen from most recent updated voting lists provided by the Office of the Secretary of State and were limited to registered Republicans and unaffiliated voters who said they planned to vote in the Republican primary.

The sample was controlled to reflect likely voter contribution by geographic region. Survey design, implementation, and administration were supervised by Profughi, who has nearly 40 years of experience conducting public opinion surveys in Rhode Island. He and members of his supervisory and computer analysis team have conducted more than 1,000 surveys in the state since 1970.

Overall, the current poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Rhode Island
KEYWORDS: 2006; 2006polls; byebyelinkie; chafee; laffee; laffey; rino; rinohunt; senate
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To: AntiGuv

My post caught my error a few seconds before you got your post up. :) The early bird gets the worm. :)


241 posted on 08/31/2006 8:32:53 PM PDT by Torie
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To: AntiGuv

I should note, that I have bad feeling about Ohio, just like I have a bad feeling about Minnesota.


242 posted on 08/31/2006 8:34:47 PM PDT by Torie
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To: Torie

Well, at least Pawlenty has shored things up in Minnesota, which should minimize the down-ballot fallout. Ohio, on the other hand, is still very much flirting with GOP disaster.


243 posted on 08/31/2006 8:38:53 PM PDT by AntiGuv ("..I do things for political expediency.." - Sen. John McCain on FOX News)
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To: WOSG
Tell the idiots at NSRC to save their frickin' money for a real Republican in need, like Santorum, Talent

fyi, santorum has about 5 million more cash on hand than casey and talent has a 2 to 1 money advantage over mccaskill.

when checking for idiots, I suggest the mirror rather than the NSRC.

244 posted on 08/31/2006 8:40:21 PM PDT by staytrue
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To: AntiGuv; crasher
Come to think of it, if I forgot Ohio, my odds of a six seat gain should go up, not down. So make it 37%, rather than 33%. I'm losing it. The good news is that the more GOP seats in play, the more than chances are that the GOP will win some of them. :)

Think before you hit the post button is the lesson here.

245 posted on 08/31/2006 8:42:13 PM PDT by Torie
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To: AntiGuv

You moved down the vacant Kennedy seat? You don't think this put Kennedy himself in serious play for the Senate seat do you?


246 posted on 08/31/2006 8:44:26 PM PDT by Torie
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To: Torie
I think there is some difference between what we might expect as the "mean" result and what me might expect as the "median" result. I think, even if you purposely downgrade GOP odds in every Senate race by a modest amount just to be safe, you still come up with a calculation for an average GOP loss of under 4 seats. And I bet tradesports caluclations, which look mostly close to right, would come up with a GOP loss right around 3.

But, at the same time, it is probably still fair to set the over/ under higher than that. Probably somewhere between 4 and 5.

247 posted on 08/31/2006 8:48:22 PM PDT by crasher
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To: Torie

As of right now I think Klobucher is clearly in command of the Senate contest. In fact, I think that one is right on the cusp between Lean Dem and Likely Dem, but in such cases I generally default to the more competitive rating, which keeps it in Lean Dem.


248 posted on 08/31/2006 8:48:55 PM PDT by AntiGuv ("..I do things for political expediency.." - Sen. John McCain on FOX News)
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To: crasher

The bottom of line of that point of view is that the bell curve tails are longer in the Dem direction than in the the GOP direction, which causes the mean to vary from the median. I agree with that. Good insight. The bell curve is not "normal" as stat folks would say - i.e., it is not symmetrical. It would by useful to distinguish between the two, but how many political pundits understand statistics, and think about mean versus median? :)


249 posted on 08/31/2006 8:53:27 PM PDT by Torie
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To: crasher
Here's an August 16, 2006 Rasmussen poll that has Stabenow up 49-45. The Democrats are vulnerable here. Stabenow has accomplished very, very little after barely winning the seat in 2000 and Michigan's economy is in horrible shape.

That poll also says that close to half of the voters here call the economy their top election issue, more than three quarters think a photo ID should be required to vote and two thirds think ballots should be printed in English only. I think the state is in play.

250 posted on 08/31/2006 8:54:34 PM PDT by Dolphy
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To: Dolphy

I do too.


251 posted on 08/31/2006 8:59:01 PM PDT by crasher
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To: goldfinch

"Yeah! It sure is a better use of resources to defeat RINOs than to defeat Democrats. Yep. That's the way to returning to the minority. Good thinking."

RINO's, Dems, no difference. Better an enemy you know than a back-stabbing ally.


252 posted on 08/31/2006 8:59:09 PM PDT by neutronsgalore (Nature, getting rid of Muslims one tsunami at a time.)
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To: Torie

I did a quick calculation of what tradesports would project as ab average result in terms of Dem gains. About 2.6 seats right now.


253 posted on 08/31/2006 9:00:50 PM PDT by crasher
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To: crasher

Sounds like it is time to bet. :) That combined with the lower of home prices in your neighborhood, should buy you a nice pad. :)


254 posted on 08/31/2006 9:02:12 PM PDT by Torie
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To: Torie

Low = decline of home prices.


255 posted on 08/31/2006 9:03:12 PM PDT by Torie
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To: Torie

I think for the most part they have done a good job calculating senate odds, reasonably good. But I agree with you that they are off by a decent margin right now. They have produced some really weird odds in Governor's races though.


256 posted on 08/31/2006 9:07:44 PM PDT by crasher
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To: crasher
Rather remote play at the moment, as to Michigan . I really don't think so, as to something that affects the odds of the overall result much. If this seat goes GOP, some of the others in play will as well. The tide will have changed, rather decisively. The attenuated end of the GOP end of the bell curve will have been realized. Of course, the play of campaigns as time goes on matters. Think Virginia. Think Rhode Island. Think maybe, we shall see, New Jersey. Luck is luck.
257 posted on 08/31/2006 9:10:29 PM PDT by Torie
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To: Torie

I agree with you on that. If we said the Dems have a 30 percent chance of taking over the Senate right now, and then if God told me right now that MI was definitely going to be held by the Dems, that piece of info. would probably not bump their odds up to as high as even 31 percent.


258 posted on 08/31/2006 9:17:45 PM PDT by crasher
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To: crasher
remote redux.
259 posted on 08/31/2006 9:17:49 PM PDT by Torie
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To: rhombus; Vinnie_Vidi_Vici
Chafee will pull a Lieberman, and run as an independant just to screw the party.

Screwing the party is what he does best.

Well, let's see if we can turn the tables...

Cheers!

260 posted on 08/31/2006 9:18:16 PM PDT by grey_whiskers
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