The new Fox News poll of the Delaware Senate race shows Democratic nominee Chris Coons continuing to enjoy a double-digit lead against Republican Christine O’Donnell.
The numbers: Coons 54%, O’Donnell 39%. The survey of likely voters has a ±3% margin of error. There is no previous Fox News poll of this race. However, this poll was conducted through a Rasmussen offshoot, Pulse Opinion Research, which performs made-to-order robopolls. The previous Rasmussen poll from last week, taken right after O’Donnell’s upset win in the primary over moderate Congressman Mike Castle, gave Coons a lead of 53%-42%.
This poll also confirms the conventional wisdom that Republican voters threw away a certain pickup of this seat. The poll asks voters to suppose that Castle had been the GOP nominee — and in that match-up he leads Coons by a whopping 48%-33%. In addition, only 33% of respondents said that O’Donnell is qualified to be a Senator, to 60% who say she is not qualified. This compares to a 59%-27% margin for Coons, the county executive of Delaware’s largest county, which contains a majority of the state’s population.
The TPM Poll Average gives Coons a lead of 53.7%-39.3% against O’Donnell. And just for comparison, the average for a Castle-Coons race gives Castle a lead of 46.4%-35.4% over the Democrat.
