A new poll of the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race released by GOP pollster John McLaughlin shows that Republican Gabriel Gomez is trailing by only three points behind his Democratic challenger, Ed Markey. The election is this coming Tuesday and the spread is 47% – 44% in favor or Markey.
The poll was taken between Monday the 17th and Wednesday the 19th, and sampled 1,100 likely voters.
“The results of our surveys show,” the pollster writes. “The new comer, Republican Gabriel Gomez, has stolen back the momentum in the special election to be held on June 25th.”
Eight days ago, in this same poll, Markey held a 6 point lead.
Older polls have shown Markey with a much wider lead.
Something that might account for a Gomez surge are the recent debates between both candidates. In a debate Tuesday, Markey committed a number of gaffes involving the taxes he pays and his independence when it comes to voting different from his party. Markey has been a congressman for 37 years.
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At best, though, only one day out of three in the McLaughlin tracking poll would pick up any fallout from those gaffes.
However, during their debate the previous week, Markey made another gaffe saying, “I heard Mr. Gomez talk about math and the budget, well, it’s really not math. It’s just arithmetic. It’s very simple arithmetic, it’s not as complicated as math.”
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