The new Rasmussen poll of the Illinois Senate race finds Republican Rep. Mark Kirk expanding his lead over Democrat Alexi Giannoulias in the race for President Obama’s former Senate seat — a sign that the failure of Giannoulias’s family bank could possibly endanger this seat for the Dems.
The numbers: Kirk 46%, Giannoulias 38%. The survey of likely voters has a ±4.5% margin of error. Three weeks ago, before the bank’s closure, Kirk had a much narrower lead of 41%-37% in Rasmussen’s polling. In addition, Kirk’s favorable rating is 52% to 31% unfavorable, compared to Giannoulias’s 42%-47% rating.
The TPM Poll Average for this race gives Kirk a lead of 42.3%-35.5%.
