The first poll is out in the NY-23 special election, a vacancy created by the appointment of former Republican Congressman John McHugh to be President Obama’s Secretary of the Army — and it shows a wide open three-way race.
The numbers from Siena: Republican Dede Scozzafava 35%, Democrat Bill Owens 28%, and Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman 16%, with a ±3.9% margin of error.
Among Democrats only: Owens 48%, Scozzafava 26%, Hoffman 6%. Among Republicans: Scozzafava 47%, Hoffman 22%, Owens 16%. Among independents: Scozzafava 26%, Owens 23%, Hoffman 20%.
From the pollster’s analysis: “This is a wide open race. One in five voters is currently undecided. Add to that the fact that one-third of Scozzafava’s current supporters and one-quarter of Owens’s current supporters say they are not very certain of their choice and that they very well may change their minds between now and Election Day.”