Posted on 11/02/2006 10:39:28 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
In the hotly contested contest for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker has jumped into a double-digit lead over Rep. Harold Ford Jr., according to a Zogby poll.
The race had been a statistical tie in a number of recent polls, but Corker’s 10-point lead in the new Zogby survey follows several gaffes by Ford, including an attempt to confront Corker at a press conference and an attack on the religious values of Republicans.
As Of Monday, Corker led by 53 percent to Ford's 43 percent in the Reuters/Zogby survey of 603 likely voters statewide, conducted Oct. 24-31.The margin of error was plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
Just a week ago the race was considered a toss-up, according to a Mason-Dixon Tennessee Poll that showed that Corker was moving ahead. That poll, conducted Oct. 18-20, showed Corker with 45 percent and Ford with 43 percent -- a dead heat given the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Three weeks before that, a Mason-Dixon Tennessee Poll showed Ford leading Corker, 43 percent to 42 percent.
The contest has attracted national attention because Democrats need to win the election if they have any hope of picking up the six Senate seats required to win a majority.
"Tennessee and Virginia are going to be the two states that, right now, are going to control the outcome in the Senate. If the Republicans can win both, they'll have a 50-50 tie and Vice President [Dick] Cheney breaks the tie. But if they lose one or the other, it looks like chances are pretty good they'll lose control of the Senate," J. Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, told Knoxville.com.
"It's still a close race in Tennessee, still within the margin for error. One big 'X factor' is the racial component: Typically in Southern states when a black Democrat takes on a white Republican in a major statewide race, the undecided white vote tends to break strongly for the white Republican candidate. But it's been a number of years (since the last serious black candidacy in the South) and attitudes may have changed.
"Until Harold Ford Jr. is running over 50 percent in the polls, I don't think he can sleep," Coker said.
The poll was finished the day before the GOP began running a controversial ad statewide attacking Ford on several fronts and including a blonde woman inviting Ford to "call me." That same day Ford confronted Corker outside a Memphis press conference that Corker had called and video of their chilly face-to-face was aired across the nation through the weekend, according to Knoxville.com.
"With this race this close, that could well prove to be a turning point, although at this point I'm not sure who it will favor," Middle Tennessee State University political scientist John Vile told the web site. "This could well be a race that is won by the side that does the best job of getting its voters to the polls."
Ford has committed a serious of blunders in his campaign, he thinks Tennessee voters are too stupid to understand his tricks. Corker is going to win comfortably in this election.
They'll vote. They know he is faking.
The closer we get to the election, the more accurate the polls are. The libnutmedia can't keep the fake number going any longer.
GO CORKER!
It took an hour and a half, but I got my vote cast last night here in Knoxville during the early voting period. I'm feeling fairly confident that I wasn't surrounded by a bunch of 'Rats. Come on, my fellow Tennessee conservatives, get out there on election day and stop the Ford family dynasty in its tracks!
the folks in tennessee probably don't like to be manipulated by corrupt left wing media moguls pushing their corrupt left wing one-world agenda...
And then quoted someone as saying "It's still a close race in Tennessee, still within the margin for error. Must be democrat math at work.
Zogby is a left-wing Arab swine. He wants TN Republicans to relax and not turn out. Don't believe it. The race is closer than this and we need everyone's vote.
What will the NYTs headline be?
Will there be lawsuits?
Will there be riots?
Will ther be (fill in the question)?
So Shelby county will be voting 80% Ford.
I noticed that. Usually when the error is within the range of the poll Republicans win so by this new math by design when it's out of reach by Democrats it's close.
The only way they can win is by fraud or fuzzy math.
I don't trust ANY Zogby "Special Sauce" poll, even ones I like.
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