Time for Cyber to eat a little crow...
Poll: Landrieu Leads La. Senate Race
By GUY COATES 11/27/2002 08:02:56 EST
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu holds a commanding lead over Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell in the nation's last undecided Senate race, according to a poll released Tuesday.
Landrieu leads Terrell 50.4 percent to 33.9 percent, according to the telephone poll of 600 registered voters by Southern Media & Opinion Research conducted Nov. 19-21. The margin of sampling error was 4 percentage points.
The runoff is Dec. 7.
The GOP won control of the Senate on Election Day, but President Bush will arrive here next week to stump for Terrell. It could give her a boost - the poll also found 72.7 percent of voters feel Bush is doing a good or excellent job.
Both candidates acknowledge the race could be close.
"You can't call me Landslide Landrieu," the incumbent said with a laugh. She won her first term six years ago in a runoff by just under 6,000 votes.
Terrell's staff dismissed the poll as inaccurate and said their own poll showed Terrell winning.
Landrieu received 46 percent of the vote in Louisiana's unique open primary Nov. 5, but she needed a majority to win. The three major Republican candidates won more than half the vote, led by Terrell, the state's election commissioner.
Absentee voting opened Monday and courthouse officials around the state said turnout has been brisk. The Saturday runoff is competing for attention with a Louisiana State football game and the final weekend of duck hunting season.
The candidates generally agree on most issues, each backing the president on Iraq and homeland defense, and offering support of tax credits for small businesses and credits to help individuals get health insurance.
So, they dig at each other. They did it again Tuesday during their third televised forum.
Landrieu noted that Terrell was once a lobbyist for a drug company, asking: "Which one of us would you think would get the price of drugs down?"
"There is so little that Mary can say about me," Terrell responded. "She has taken money from drug companies."
The challenger also declared that "Louisiana needs one good senator in the majority."
The Senate seat does not belong to President Bush, Landrieu said. "It belongs to Louisiana."
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