PORTLAND — Independent Angus King has a comfortable but shrinking lead over Republican Charlie Summers in the race for the U.S. Senate, according to a new poll of Maine voters.
King’s lead over Summers had dropped from 30 percentage points in June to 22 points in mid-September, according to a poll commissioned by the Maine Sunday Telegram.
Fifty percent of those surveyed said they supported King, 28 percent favored Summers and 12 percent backed Democrat Cynthia Dill, the paper reported Sunday.
But the poll also suggested that King’s numbers could drop further because some of his support is considered soft. While King leads Summers overall, a larger portion of his support came from people who said they would “probably” vote for King or were “leaning” in that direction.
Among “definite” voters, King was leading 32 percent to Summers’ 22 percent, the survey said.
Crystal Canney, spokeswoman for the King campaign, said King isn’t taking anything for granted regardless of what the survey results say.
Summers’ campaign manager, Lance Dutson, said he believes the race has tightened even more since the survey was conducted two weeks ago.
The Critical Insights poll included live telephone interviews with 618 randomly selected likely voters statewide.
The survey was conducted Sept. 12-16 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
The poll also questioned Mainers about their support in other races in the Nov. 6 election as well as a ballot question seeking to legalized same-sex marriage.
Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed said they support legalizing same-sex marriage in Maine, with 36 percent opposed and 7 percent undecided.
In the 1st District congressional race, 60 percent of those surveyed said they support Democratic incumbent Chellie Pingree, 29 percent favored Republican challenger Jon Courtney and 11 percent were undecided.
In the 2nd District race, Democratic incumbent Mike Michaud was leading GOP challenger Kevin Raye 54 percent to 39 percent, with 8 percent undecided.
In the presidential race, Democratic President Barack Obama was leading Republican nominee Mitt Romney 54 percent to 36 percent.
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