David Hill of Hill Research Consultants, a center-right public opinion research firm, had good news for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer Friday as Hill released the results of his firm's latest poll showing Schaffer is gaining ground on Democrat rival Mark Udall.
While Schaffer has yet to pull ahead of Udall in the polls, Hill's results show Schaffer gaining ground. With just two weeks left until the Nov. 4 election, Hill found that 13 percent of Colorado voters are still undecided on the race. Half those voters are unaffiliated, while 32 percent are Republicans and 19 percent are Democrats. The poll found that a disproportionate number of these undecided voters live outside the Denver metro area's seven counties. According to Hill, the figures bode well for Schaffer because rural Colorado trends Republican. He predicted, based on registration and location, that when late deciders finally “tune in” they will choose Schaffer.
In these waning days of the campaign, Hill's firm has been hired by the Schaffer camp to poll 200 Colorado voters daily. The above numbers are part of a compiled three-day average from Oct. 15-17 and reflect a margin of error of 3.9 percent.
As of Friday's poll release, Democrat Mark Udall is garnering 43 percent of the vote, while Schaffer follows at 38 percent, with his shortfall just shy of the poll’s margin of error. Third party candidates Bob Kinsey of the Green Party, Douglas Dayhorse Campbell of the American Constitution Party and Buddy Moore of the Independent Party each earned 2 percent.
The national financial crisis has hurt Republican candidates at every level, and recent anti-Schaffer attack ads have attempted to pin the crisis on his free market voting record while in Congress in the late 1990's. Prior to the $700 billion Wall Street bailout just weeks ago, independent national polls showed Schaffer and Udall neck and neck for the open Senate seat, with the difference often within the margin of error.