Portman maintaining 19-point lead over Fisher

By Marc Kovac

mkovac@dixcom.com

COLUMBUS

Republican Rob Portman maintained a 19-point lead over Democrat Lee Fisher in Ohio’s race for U.S. Senate, according to the latest poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

The former congressman topped Ohio’s lieutenant governor 55 percent to 36 percent among likely voters.

The results were comparable to Quinnipiac’s poll last month.

In a released statement, the institute’s assistant director, Peter A. Brown, said Fisher faces “an incredibly uphill battle in the four weeks before Election Day.”

He added, “The fact that Fisher hasn’t been able to make up any ground since the last Quinnipiac University poll is a bad omen for his ability to make this a close race.”

The independent Connecticut-based polling survey regularly gauges Ohioans’ views of candidates and issues. Over the past week, it questioned 1,025 likely voters on the race to fill outgoing Republican U.S. Sen. George Voinovich’s seat and on opinions of the federal government.

On the latter, 37 percent said they are angry about the federal government, while 38 percent said they are dissatisfied with it.

Angry voters back Portman by a margin of 81 percent to 12 percent, according to the poll.

“The fact that Ohio likely voters want their U.S. senator to oppose President Barack Obama and want Republicans to control the Senate is further evidence that it will be very, very difficult for Fisher to catch Portman,” Brown said.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.