SEATTLE - With six months until the election, a new KING 5 News poll finds Democrat Patty Murray would lose handily to Republican Dino Rossi if the election for her U.S. Senate seat from Washington were held today.
But neither camp is buying it, at least not publicly.
The poll conducted by SurveyUSA also finds Murray does not have a clear advantage against the other five possible Republican opponents.
SurveyUSA polled 850 Washington state residents, then narrowed it down to 517 who are likely to vote in November. They were asked who they would vote for in a matchup between Murray and any one of these six candidates: Dino Rossi, State Sen. Don Benton; former NFL player Clint Didier; businessman Chris Widener; businessman Paul Akers; or Dr. Art Coday.
Fifty-two percent say they would vote for Rossi over Murray while 42 percent said they would choose Murray. Seven percent were undecided.
However, both Dino Rossi and the Murray camp agree that these numbers don't seem right. Rossi says the internal and public polling shows Murray has the advantage.
All the other matchups are a statistical tie, as they fall within the margin of error of ±4.4 percent:
Murray vs. Benton
- Murray: 46 percent
- Benton: 44 percent
- Undecided: 10 percent
Murray vs. Didier
- Murray: 46 percent
- Didier: 44 percent
- Undecided: 10 percent
Murray vs. Widener
- Murray: 45 percent
- Widener: 43 percent
- Undecided: 12 percent
Murray vs. Akers
- Murray: 45 percent
- Akers: 44 percent
- Undecided: 11 percent
Murray vs. Coday
- Murray: 45 percent
- Coday: 41 percent
- Undecided: 14 percent
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