A new poll finds that U.S. Sen. Al Franken and Gov. Mark Dayton have only narrow leads against their Republican opponents.
The KSTP/SurveyUSA poll found that Dayton leads Republican rival Jeff Johnson 46 percent to 40 percent; Rep. Kurt Zellers 46 percent to 39 percent; former Rep. Marty Seifert 46 percent to 38 percent and businessman Scott Honour 47 percent to 37 percent. A few months back, the polling firm found that the DFL governor led all Republican challengers by double digit margins.
The poll also found bad news for Franken as he vies for re-election. He only leads Republican Mike McFadden by six percentage points, netting 48 percent to McFadden's 42 percent. Franken leads Republican Rep. Jim Abeler 48 percent to 39 percent. Those numbers show a slight decline for Franken from the poll a few months ago.
Those parts of the poll had a margin of sample error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The firm also asked about primary voting preferences among Republicans. On the governor's race, the poll showed the candidates in a "dead heat." In the race for Senate, McFadden had a clear lead. The parts of the poll that asked about primary preferences had a margin of sample error of plus or minus five percentage points.
KSTP will release more details on the poll Friday afternoon.
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