A new online poll released Monday by the New York Times, CBS, and London research firm YouGov found Connecticut Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley with a nine-point lead over incumbent Dannel Malloy (D-WFP).

According to ctpost.com, the poll found Foley leading Malloy 42-33 in a hypothetical general election match-up. Foley faces an August 12th primary against state Senate Minority Leader John McKinney.

If Foley is ultimately the Republican candidate, the governor’s race would be a rematch for him and Malloy. It was reported that Malloy defeated Foley in 2010 by about 6,400 votes, though the results were scrutinized due to irregularities in procedures.

The poll’s breakdown shows that Malloy had at least a 10-point lead over Foley with women, black, and Hispanic voters.

A Quinnipiac poll in May found Malloy and Foley in a dead heat.

Nathan Gonzales, deputy editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, a nonpartisan political newsletter, said, “Something showing Foley up by almost double digits should give anyone pause. I think the governor’s race in Connecticut is shaping up to be one of the Republicans’ better opportunities around the country.”

Foley and McKinney are both considered to be moderate Republicans. Some media have called Foley “hard to define,” and McKinney, whose district includes Newtown, Connecticut, championed the state’s new gun control laws.

Also running for governor in Connecticut – now as an Independent – is Joe Visconti, who is not hard to define. Visconti, 57, helped to found the Tea Party movement in the state of Connecticut and is an avid gun rights activist. He states he has collected more than enough signatures needed to ensure his place on the November ballot.

In an interview with the New Haven Independent, Visconti, who runs a family construction company, discussed his opposition to the state’s recent minimum wage hike, gun control laws, and income or sales tax increases.

“We need to take the cities back,” he said. “The cities have to be weaned off state money.”

Visconti takes a harder line on amnesty than the establishment Republican candidates. In fact, when the city of New Haven was first to approve ID cards, regardless of immigration status, and ordered police not to ask about immigration status, Visconti attempted a lawsuit to stop approval of the ID card.

“Do you want to follow the Constitution and the force of law? Or do you want to bend your law to your own feel-good [preferences]?” he asks.

Visconti is solidly opposed to the Common Core standards, acknowledging the initiative as a federal intrusion into education, an area reserved by the Constitution for the states. Attacking the controversial standards as “a costly social experiment to federalize education at the expense of your children’s education and future,” Visconti describes the system as one that “further disadvantages the economically disadvantaged and limits the flexibility of teachers to appropriately educate their individual students.”

Regarding gun laws, Visconti once asked New Haven voters, “Has the crime and the gun violence slowed with these new laws?”

“You are never going to take guns out of America,” Visconti said.