Minnesota Public Radio Poll Shows Former V.P. Walter Mondale Trailing in Volatile Senate Race

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[Minn. Public Radio poll! If any poll might have a liberal bias, this one would, would't you think? The Dems must be sweating pretty badly right about now, whether they believe this poll or not.]

Press Release Source: Pioneer Press

St. Paul Pioneer Press - Minnesota Public Radio Poll Shows Former V.P. Walter Mondale Trailing in Volatile Senate Race Sunday November 3, 2:05 am ET

ST. PAUL, Minn., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- With 10 percent of voters still undecided, former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman has a 6-percentage-point lead over former Vice President Walter Mondale in statewide poll results for Minnesota's U. S. Senate race.

ADVERTISEMENT Get Bank of America checking. With voter volatility making measurements of the state's public opinion a difficult task, results show Coleman, a Republican, with 47 percent, and Mondale with 41 percent. The poll, conducted for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

Support for other candidates totals just 2 percent, according to the poll conducted Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Oct. 30 through Nov. 1. A total of 625 likely voters participated.

After U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash, Mondale was called from retirement by Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor party for a five-day campaign his supporters have dubbed the "Fritz Blitz."

Poll results "are a reflection of how volatile the race has become since Wellstone's death," says Dave Peters, the Pioneer Press senior editor who oversees the newspaper's polling efforts.

With the crash that killed Wellstone, his wife, daughter and several campaign staffers just 11 days before the election, the state's 2 million voters "had to rethink at least momentarily who they would vote for in the Senate election," Peters says. The count of undecided voters has increased from just 5 percent in the newspaper's September poll.

In addition, 17 percent of respondents said their choice in the Senate race was influenced by a controversial Wellstone memorial service that many considered a political rally.

The Pioneer Press, Minnesota's first newspaper and the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, serves readers and advertisers in the Twin Cities' East Metro region and Western Wisconsin. The Pioneer Press has daily circulation of 201,492 and Sunday circulation of 258,427. To arrange for home delivery, call (800) 678-7737.

For more information on poll results, or to interview a St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter, please contact Lisa Wolford at (917) 846-0881 or Pat Effenberger at (651) 335-5216.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2002


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