The Delaware GOP Senate nominee has nearly halved the lead Democratic rival Chris Coons holds over her in the First State's widely-watched Senate race, a poll released Friday shows.
In a Monmouth University poll, Coons now leads O'Donnell 51-41 percent, whereas two weeks ago, the New Castle County executive led the conservative activist 57-38 percent.
The poll indicates that the Delaware race could have a closer result on Election Day than many elections analysts have predicted over the past few weeks.
The Delaware race drew widespread national attention after O'Donnell upset nine-term centrist Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) in the GOP primary. Before her win, GOP strategists viewed the race for Vice President Joe Biden's old Senate seat as a prime pickup opportunity that could help the party take control of the upper chamber.
But O'Donnell, who has run for Senate twice in the past, was seen as a weaker candidate than Castle. She struggled to get financial assistance from national Republicans, though Senate GOP Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) is expected to campaign for her this weekend.
"While Coons still has the advantage, it has to be uncomfortable
knowing that O’Donnell was able to shave 9 points off his lead in just
two weeks. The interesting thing is that while her vote total has risen,
the majority of Delaware voters still say she is unqualified for the
post," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling
Institute.
The poll was conducted before an anonymous posting on the gossip website Gawker that detailed an alleged sexual encounter O'Donnell had with a man three years ago after she lost her first bid to become senator. The O'Donnell campaign condemned the post as "just another example of the sexism and slander," pointing to criticism from the women's group NOW and some in the media. It also hit at Coons for not condemning the story.
Likely voters' favorability ratings of O'Donnell are still low in the Monmouth poll, but they are improved from two weeks ago. The survey shows that 34 percent of likely voters view the Republican as favorable opposed to 51 percent who say view her unfavorably. Two weeks ago the gap was at 31-58.
She has also made up ground among independent voters: two weeks ago she trailed Coons 51-41 percent in the key voting bloc, but this week the poll shows her leading 47-42 percent.
Monmouth surveyed 1,171 likely voters by phone from Oct. 25-27. The poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) accused the media on Thursday evening of being "easy" on his Republican challenger, Sharron Angle.
Reid accused Angle of speaking in "code words" in reference to some of her positions on entitlement programs like Social Security, and jabbed at the media for not fully probing her views.
"Never have I run against someone who speaks in code words that are not explainable," Reid said during an appearance on MSNBC. "And I have to say, the press has given her a pretty easy go."
Angle has deliberately avoided engaging with mainstream media, and has instead focused her efforts on meeting with constituents and doing outreach through select conservative media. She suggested earlier this week that she might look to re-engage with traditional media after the election.
"I'm hoping that, as we get into this, once I get elected senator that they will be much more civil and we will have a very civil discourse," she told conservative talker Heidi Harris on Wednesday.
Reid noted Angle's partial media blackout as part of his criticism of Angle.
"You can't ask her to explain this, and she wouldn't anyway," he said.
PRINCETON, W.Va. -- West Virginia Gov. Joe Machin says President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Washington need to make some changes after November.
"Absolutely the president needs to move to the middle and his administration needs to move to the middle," Manchin told the Ballot Box after rallying supporters at an event in downtown Princeton Thursday.
"And you know what, some of the people on the right need to move to the middle because you can't govern from the extremes," said Manchin, who's locked in a tough Senate race with Republican businessman John Raese.
His opponent closed the gap in what was supposed to be an easy race for Manchin after spending millions on TV ads hitting the governor as a pawn of Obama and Washington Democrats.
Manchin said Thursday that he's confident voters see through those attacks, but warned supporters if Democrats don't turn out in force on Election Day, "it's gonna be a long night."
The president is unpopular in the state and Manchin has been distancing
himself from the administration, noting he's never visited Obama in the
White House. Manchin has brought former President Clinton to campaign
for him.
Manchin also joked about his infamous campaign ad that showed him literally shooting a hole
through the cap-and-trade bill.
"You know how I feel about cap and trade," he told the crowd.
"I didn't get it on the first shot," Manchin joked. "I had a couple of practice shots, but I got it."
Manchin also told the crowd at The Sugar Shak in downtown Princeton if Democrats turn out, "we're going to be just fine." But he sounded the alarm on the outside interests spending in support of Raese, warning voters that a "fear and smear campaign" has his political opposition motivated.
"Theyre trying to scare the beejezus out of you and tell you that I'm going to be someone I've never been or do something I've never done before," Manchin said.
Manchin appears to have regained his footing in recent polls after Raese's surge. The latest Rasmussen poll puts the governor up three points less than a week out from Election Day. A Public Policy poll from last week put Manchin ahead by ten.
Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina is back on the campaign trail Thursday in California, but it is unclear whether her two-day stint in the hospital will hurt her chances to pull off a victory on Election Day.
Fiorina’s hospitalization earlier this week — the result of an infection stemming from reconstructive surgery related to a bout with breast cancer — comes as she remains behind Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) in public polls.
Now, she has to assuage any concerns about her health and has to make up for valuable campaign time.
The Kentucky Democratic Party is using the attack of a liberal activist by a former Rand Paul campaign volunteer to hit the Republican Senate candidate on the issues.
The party released a Web video Wednesday showing Paul volunteer Tim Profitt stomping twice on the head of a MoveOn activist. Spliced into the reel are Paul policy stances that are part of what they call "the Rand Paul STOMP." They include his supposed positions on student loans, mine safety, disability protection, cancer research, the Civil Rights Act and tax policy.
"Stomping on you, stomping on Kentucky," the ad says.
"It's a scary ad, but it's the truth," Kentucky Democratic Party spokesman Matt Erwin said in an e-mail. "We are working right now to get the ad broadcast on the air but we want to make sure it's on at an appropriate hour, we don't want children to get see it and be scared."
The Kentucky race has been one of the most contentious, most watched Senate campaigns in the country. With most polls showing Paul holding a single-digit lead, his Democratic rival Jack Conway has used the stomping attack as part of his closing argument this week.
His campaign has held two conference calls in the last two days, calling Paul's response to the incident "tepid" and demanding he return $2,500 in campaign contributions given by Profitt and a woman who appears to be his wife.
The Paul campaign has dismissed Profitt as a volunteer and banned him from future events. Paul's campaign has said the candidate has already condemned the incident and accused Conway of trying to distract voters from the issues.
Profitt could face misdemeanor assault charges for his actions.
Meanwhile, the National Republican Senatorial Committee released its own Web video Wednesday accusing Conway of being "a politician who will say anything to be elected," criticizing his record as state attorney general.
A Republican Senate candidate suggested a government shutdown might be "absolutely necessary" if a budget impasse arises in the next two years.
GOP Utah Senate candidate Mike Lee raised the prospect of a shutdown reminiscent of the 1995 standoff between President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).
"It's an inconvenience, it would be frustrating to many, many people, and it's not a great thing. And yet, at the same time, it's not something that we can rule out," Lee said Thursday during an interview on NPR. "It may be absolutely necessary."
Lee's threat rises above the level of candidate bluster because he's seen as the likely victor on Nov. 2. If he were able to take office, Lee would conceivably have the power to filibuster any budget proposal, requiring 60 senators to vote to oppose him and move toward a final vote.
Lee's one of the few potential senators who could take office next year who have been fueled by the grassroots Tea Party movement. Republican candidate Ken Buck in Colorado has said he isn't interested in compromise, an ethos echoed in part by a slate of other conservative Republican candidates for Senate.
Other Republicans have been more dismissive of a government shutdown, fearing the negative political repercussions that the GOP had endured after the 1995 fight.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said in a recent debate that a shutdown could endanger troops abroad.
"Well, I think as long as you've got men and women deployed in harm's way in Afghanistan, the last thing in the world is you shut down the support system for those men and women," he said. "So I would not want to do that."
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