UPDATE – UW Poll: Murray up by 8 over Rossi; voters chilly to taxes
UPDATED – UW Poll: Murray up by 8 over Rossi; voters chilly to taxes The Washington Poll released today is the second in days to say that three-term U.S. Sen. Patty Murray is leading Republican Dino Rossi by 8 percentage points. That's a much wider margin than what Republican-oriented polls have showed (putting the race in the toss-up column) but less than the Elway Poll that recently put Murray up by 13.
Go here for Keith Seinfeld's interview on KPLU radio today with University of Washington political science professor Matt Barreto about the Washington Poll results showing Murray moving into a solid lead. This fall's UW Poll is a joint project with KCTS-9 and KPLU, and past UW Poll results have been pretty accurate predictors of election outcomes.
Here is CNN’s poll released this week that also shows Murray up by eight, or 51 percent to 43 percent. But among a larger sample, it said Murray and Rossi were closer to the error margin with the incumbent up just 4 points.
Barreto said the results are outside the margin of error and indicative of Murray building an edge that, based on past elections, could be insurmountable. The race is one of the nation's top-watched Senate races.
Full UW Poll results are posted here.
The UW Poll also shows that voters are lining up against taxes – including 20-percentage-point advantages for both the industry-backed Initiative 1107 proposal to repeal taxes on soda pop and candy [update: it’s ahead 56 percent to 36 percent] and for Tim Eyman’s I-1053 that would reinstate two-thirds legislative vote requirements for tax increases [update: 57 percent approve a two-thirds requirement, 30 percent disapprove]. Barreto told the radio interviewer that I-1098's high-earners tax also is failing by 9 percentage points [update: it’s 42 percent yes, 51 percent no] but could get closer.
Recent polling for Fox television – linked here – showed the Senate race was within the margin of error. But Murray has collected key newspaper endorsements.
The Rossi campaign today cited a report today that called the Senate race No 10 among close races nationally and a toss up.
UPDATE: KCTS-9 plans coverage of the results tonight on its Connects program at 7 p.m.
This story was originally published October 15, 2010 at 9:45 AM with the headline "UPDATE – UW Poll: Murray up by 8 over Rossi; voters chilly to taxes."