The new Siena poll of the special election to replace Anthony Weiner in New York’s 9th Congressional district is rough reading for Democrats.
The numbers: Republican businessman Bob Turner 50%, Democratic state Rep. Dave Weprin 44%. The survey of likely voters was conducted from September 6-8, and has a ±3.3% margin of error.
The election is this Tuesday, September 13.
From the pollsters’ analysis: “Turner is viewed favorably by 48 percent of likely voters and unfavorably by 34 percent, while Weprin has a 41-41 percent favorability rating. By a 43-32 percent margin, likely voters say Turner is running the more positive campaign, and by a similar 39-30 percent margin, they say Weprin’s is the more negative campaign.”
In the previous Siena poll from a month ago, Weprin led by 48%-42%. Since then, however, Weprin has had a series of costly gaffes, such as when he under-estimated the size of the national debt by a margin of $10 trillion.
A recent poll from Republican pollster Magellan Strategies also showed Turner ahead, and indicated that a generic Democrat would perform better than Weprin.
On Thursday, the DCCC threw a half-million dollar money ad buy into the district, in an effort to save a seat that by its usual voting patterns should not have been even a remote problem for them.
