A new USC/LA Times poll shows Sen. Barbara Boxer ahead of Republican senate candidate Carly Fiorina by eight points, 50 percent to 42 percent.
The Fiorina campaign is charging that the poll, which shows a significantly wider gap between the candidates than that found by other recent polls, uses a skewed sample of likely voters.
The Tarrance Group’s Dave Sackett compared the poll’s sample of likely voters to the voter turnout in 2006, and found that the poll’s group upped the percentage of Democrats by two points and decreased the percent of Republicans and Independents by 3 points and 1 point respectively. Considering that 2006 was a year of high enthusiasm for Democrats and 2010 promises to be the same for Republicans, the poll’s sample decisions are surprising.
“Among those respondents who voted in 2006, the ballot test is a statistical dead heat, with Boxer at 46 percent of the vote and Fiorina at 45 percent of the vote,” noted Sackett.