Monday, October 18, 2010

MA-10: Close Battle

A new poll has been released showing how tightly contested the race is in Massachusetts's 10th Congressional District:

The race for the 10th Congressional District between Democrat William Keating and Republican Jeffrey Perry is a statistical dead heat, according to poll results released Sunday afternoon by WGBH and MassInc.

The poll of 400 likely voters in the 10th Congressional District gives Keating a slight edge over Perry, 46 percent to 43 percent with only 4 percent undecided and 5 percent leaning toward one of the three independent candidates in the race. The results have a 4.9 percent margin of error.

When the same 400 likely voters were initially asked who they preferred, Perry came out on top 41 percent to 40 percent, with 13 percent of the voters undecided. Independents garnered only 4 percent collectively.

Keating's vicious personal attacks on Perry have been successful at driving up Perry's unfavorability rating, but this poll also shows why Keating has attacked so vociferously: this seat is on the verge of flipping to the GOP.

National Democratic money is flowing into this race, fueling negative ads against Perry. Perry has advanced the case for small-government reform, and it seems to be working (notice that Keating is not mainly attacking Perry on the issues or defending the record of Congressional Democrats). A little more support could put Perry over the top.