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Fisher leads Brunner in poll of likely Dem voters
By MARC KOVAC
COLUMBUS
Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher is leading Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in their primary match-up, but many likely voters still are undecided or say they might change their mind before May 4.
That’s according to a new poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, which regularly gauges Ohioans’ attitudes on candidates and issues.
Over the past week, the Connecticut-based institute questioned 978 likely Democratic primary voters on the race to replace Republican U.S. Sen. George Voinovich.
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Lee Fisher
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Jennifer Brunner
Fisher led Brunner, 33 percent to 26 percent, though 40 percent of respondents remained undecided, and 65 percent said they might change their mind.
Fisher “is ahead as the candidates enter the home stretch, but the lead is not that large, and the size of the undecided vote with a relatively short period until primary election day underscores the potential volatility of the contest,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the polling institute, said in a released statement.
“Fisher’s lead shouldn’t be all that surprising, since he has been active in statewide politics for going on two decades and is better known than [Brunner] because she is much newer to the statewide political scene.”
Fisher also had a better favorability rating among poll participants, with 33 percent giving him positive marks and 8 percent giving him an unfavorable ranking. Brunner has a 24 percent-7 percent favorability rating.
The remainder did not know enough about the candidates to offer an opinion.
“With so many voters lacking so much information with so little time to go until voting, the election is going to be decided by which of the two does a better job reaching this big group of voters who don’t think they know enough at this point to make a choice,” Brown said. “Given how campaigns work, the candidate with the biggest and best television campaign is most likely to prevail.”
The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Rob Portman, a former congressman and Bush administration official. He is unopposed in the primary.