Kerry Leads Bush In Poll Of Likely Washington Voters
POSTED: 3:23 pm PDT August 13, 2004
SEATTLE -- A poll of likely voters in Washington state this week shows that Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards lead the President Bush-Dick Cheney ticket 51 percent to 42 percent.
Strategic Vision, LLC, an Atlanta-based Republican polling firm, surveyed 801 likely voters by telephone Monday through Wednesday, asking them who they'd vote for if the election were held that day.
When Ralph Nader was included in the question, the Kerry-Edwards ticket beat the Bush-Cheney ticket 49 percent to 42 percent, with 1 percent of people saying they'd vote for Nader and 8 percent undecided.
The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percent.
Partial results of the poll, conducted by Strategic Vision as a way to raise the 3-year-old company's national profile, were released Friday, as President Bush stumped in Oregon before coming to the Seattle area for a private fund-raiser at the home of a former timber company executive.
Paul Berendt, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said the results matched up with polling the party has done recently.
"I think the Bush people know they have a big problem in Washington, and they view this as a fund-raising stop, so they can take the money they raise here and send it to another state," Berendt said. "I'm beginning to wonder if Bush has written this state off."
State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance countered that the president and vice president have visited Washington eight times since their re-election campaign began -- a clear sign that they view it as a highly competitive state.
"The president's campaign has been very visible here," said Brett Bader, a Republican campaign strategist based in Seattle. "They're organized at the grass roots level. They're running television ads. Members of his administration and he are making appearances here. That's what you call contesting a state."
David E. Johnson, Strategic Vision's CEO, suggested the poll shows Washington might not be the swing state some say it is.
"At this point, we're doing polling in other battleground states as well. And we're seeing margins of 1 percent, 2 percent or 3 percent," Johnson said.
Johnson stressed that he doesn't think the Bush-Cheney campaign has written off Washington -- at least not yet -- "but right now I think they're definitely focusing on the Midwest, Oregon and Florida.
"We take all polls as just a snapshot. We know this race is going to be close all over the country," Yier Shi, Republican National Committee spokesman, said.
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