Fox Poll: Buck’s Lead Over Bennet Narrows 46-45; Hickenlooper 45-40 Over Surging Tancredo

Some incremental changes overall from the last Fox poll on attitudes toward the government, Tea Parties, and President Barack Obama, but the real movement can be seen in the toplines for U.S. Senate and Governor battles.

Ken Buck’s four-point lead over Sen. Michael Bennet has withered to just one point in this survey, 46 to 45, mirroring the recent Rasmussen poll that had the two candidates at 47 to 45.

Last week, Rasmussen moved the gubernatorial matchup from “leans Democrat” to “toss-up” following a 42-38-12 result, with John Hickenlooper’s lead over the come-out-of-nowhere Tom Tancredo collapsing to just four points. Dan Maes remains the spoiler, hovering close to the 10 percent mark–the level necessary for the Republican party to maintain major party status under state law.

The Fox poll corroborates these findings with slight variation, putting Hickenlooper, the Democrat, ahead of Tancredo by five points, 45 to 40. Maes has just 10 percent, and though he’s vowed to stay in to the end, could be looking at single digits by November 2.

Maes’ small following has continued to translate into paltry fundraising numbers–he pulled in nearly $22,000 in the first half of October, but has only $8,500 cash on hand. Hickenlooper raised the most and also spent the most, with $347,000 still on hand. Tancredo also had a healthy haul, and spent aggressively as well, leaving him with over $63,000 cash on hand.

The numbers below are from the current poll, taken October 16, contrasted with the poll done three weeks earlier, showing the respective movement in the races.

U.S. Senate

9/25/10 10/16/10

Ken Buck (R) 47% 46%

Michael Bennet (D) 43% 45%

Some other candidate 5% 5%

Not sure 5% 4%

Governor

9/25/10 10/16/10

Dan Maes (R) 15% 10%

John Hickenlooper (D) 44% 45%

Tom Tancredo(ACP)34% 40%

Some other candidate 1% 1%

Not sure 5% 5%