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MPR poll: Franken, Coleman nose to nose

Last update: February 1, 2008 - 8:45 AM

The Minnesota Public Radio News/Humphrey Institute Poll indicates DFL Senate candidate Al Franken poses more of a re-election threat to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman than any of the other DFL candidates.

The poll indicates that if the election were today Coleman and Franken would be in a statistical dead heat.

The poll took the pulse of 917 Minnesota residents over a one- week period that ended Sunday. It shows Coleman 5 points ahead of DFLer Mike Ciresi, and gives Coleman double-digit leads over Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Jim Cohen who dropped out of the race Friday.

University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs Professor Lawrence Jacobs, who directed the poll, said "We were very surprised by how far ahead Al Franken is of Mike Ciresi and the rest of the campaign."

Jacobs said more than one-third of those polled rated the economy and jobs as the two most important campaign issues, followed distantly by Iraq and health care. Among those polled, Franken beat Coleman on all three issues.

"He's doing very well on a number of different fronts," Jacobs said. "When Democrats in Minnesota think about the economy and jobs and they think about Iraq, they're tending to move towards Franken. When they think about the state and the direction the country is moving in they're concerned that it's off on the wrong track. They're thinking that Franken is the guy who can address that and by significant margins."

Nearly three quarters of the respondents believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction. And a majority who feel that way support Franken.

On the web at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/

 

 

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Campaign finance information through Mar 31, 2008

National contributions
Coleman  
$8,727,214
Franken  
$9,356,168
$18,083,382
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President data includes only information from Minnesota contributors. House and Senate data is for Minnesota seats only. More info

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