Poll: Senate Candidates Still In Dead Heat
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- It's just 21 days until the Maryland primary and the Democratic US Senate candidates are on the attack. New poll numbers find them still in a statistical dead heat.
Forty-four percent of likely voters say they support Donna Edwards and 40% support Chris Van Hollen.
Political reporter Pat Warren has the latest on the campaign trail.
Those numbers are within the 4.5 margin of error, meaning Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen are locked in a race with what looks like an unpredictable outcome.
Since the US Senate debate televised on WJZ, Maryland's democratic primary candidates have blazed a path through the Baltimore area. Donna Edwards' new ad blasts Van Hollen's Congressional record.
"I said no to the Social Security cuts Chris Van Hollen said he'd consider and I won't take money from Wall Street banks even though my opponent did," her ad said.
Van Hollen calls the ads a gross distortion.
"Congresswoman Edwards and her campaign launched a TV ad and a radio ad designed to mislead Maryland voters about my record," he said.
The latest poll numbers show the candidates breaking along race and gender lines.
"About 30% of the Maryland population is African-American, about 90% of them vote Democratic so race is really big in the Democratic primary," said Don Norris.
The University of Maryland Washington Post poll finds Donna Edwards leading three to one among African American voters. Chris Van Hollen leads two to one among white voters.
The support of women voters also varies by race. Van Hollen has a 23% lead among white women and Edwards has a 51% lead among black women.
The Van Hollen ad is an appeal to black voters from a state senator representing Edwards' own home county. Former Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend reinforces Van Hollen as an established politician.
"The question is do you want somebody who leads and gets things done or somebody who just makes things up because she doesn't have real case against Chris Van Hollen?" Kennedy Townsend said.
What she does have is gaining support.
"From people all across our state who believe when we add diverse perspectives around the table of public policy that we make different choices when it comes to those policies that impact working people," Edwards said.
The answer rests with voter turnout.
Between this and the city mayor's race, Baltimore could see a higher turnout.
On the Republican side, the poll shows six in 10 likely Republican voters have no preference among their Senate candidates.
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