New poll shows Dayton, Franken with wide leads
The latest survey results from Public Policy Polling show Gov. Mark Dayton and Sen. Al Franken with comfortable leads over their potential opponents.
According to the survey, Franken leads all of his potential Republican opponents by double digits, including his most likely challenger Mike McFadden. In that match-up, Franken has an 11 percentage point advantage with 49 percent to McFadden's 38 percent.
The news is good for Dayton, too, who has at least a 10 percentage point lead over his potential opponents. That includes an 11 point lead over Republican endorsed candidate Jeff Johnson.
PPP pollster Tom Jensen said Franken and Dayton's lead is partly attributed to the fact that their opponents aren't widely known.
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"Because the Republican candidates are so unknown, we're finding Republican leaning voters tend to be undecided at this point," Jensen said.
As election season wears on and Republicans unify behind one candidate, both races are likely to get closer, Jensen said.
The PPP poll produced somewhat different results from a recent survey conducted by SurveyUSA and KSTP, which had Franken with a 6 point lead over McFadden and Dayton with a 6 point lead over Johnson.
Jensen said that may have had to do with the fact that 57 percent of the SurveyUSA respondents were men, who are more likely to lean Republican, Jensen said.
Both polls had different parameters. For instance, the PPP poll surveyed 633 registered voters and had a margin of error of 3.9 percent. Meanwhile, the KSTP/SurveyUSA poll spoke to 2,032 registered voters, and had a 3.1 percent margin of error.
Read more about the results here.