Various elections are taking place on November 4th 2014; among them include various seats in the United States Senate, every seat in the House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.
One of the elections will be Connecticut gubernatorial election to elect the Governor of Connecticut. This year’s race is between Democratic incumbent candidate, Dannel Malloy, and Republican candidate, Tom Foley, who ran against each other back in 2010. Also running is independent candidate, Joe Visconti.
A recent polling by Quinnipiac University asked the question “If the election for Governor were being held today…for whom would you vote?” The results, released on October 8th, have Malloy and Foley tied with 43% of the vote. Visconti followed with 9%, and 5% of voters had not yet decided whom they would vote for.
The polling also asked potential voters if their opinions of the candidates were favorable or unfavorable. Malloy’s ratings were 41% favorable -51% unfavorable, and Foley ratings were 41% favorable – 39% unfavorable.
86% of those polled hadn’t heard enough of Visconti in order to have an opinion.
The results see many changes from Quinnipiac’s last poll on the topic. The previous poll, released on September 10th, had Foley leading Malloy by 6%, with Foley at 46% and Malloy at 40%. In September, Malloy’s unfavorable rating was 53% and Foley’s was 33%.
“As the campaign has gotten nasty, voters are not wild about either candidate. Malloy’s favorability rating is still underwater. Foley gets a mixed favorability rating. He is a little better known since early September, but a little less liked. Voters like Foley less since our last poll. Foley’s negatives have risen perhaps due to Malloy’s attacks,” says Poll Director Doug Schwartz.
“Malloy’s attacks” may be referring to statements made by Malloy about Foley’s controversial past during a debate at UConn on October 2nd. During the debate, Malloy referred to an incident in 1981 when Foley was arrested after hitting a car five times, and many years later when he didn’t tell the FBI of his arrest record when he was vetted for the ambassadorship to Ireland under President George W. Bush.
For all of the poll results from October 8th, visit: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/images/polling/ct/ct10082014_c932hxpb.pdf