Newsweek: Dole Has Caught Up

GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole is statistically tied with President Clinton in a Newsweek poll conducted as the Republican National Convention came to a close.

Dole trails Clinton by only 2 percentage points - within the margin of error for the poll.

If the election were held today, Clinton would lead with 44 percent of the vote, Dole would receive 42 percent and the candidate nominated by Ross Perot’s Reform Party would receive 3 percent, according to poll results.

A poll Newsweek conducted the previous week had Dole trailing Clinton by 20 percentage points. In that survey, Clinton had 53 percent, Dole 33 and the Reform Party candidates 7 percent.

Dole and runningmate Jack Kemp made little of the new numbers.

“I want to be winning on November 5. That’s the poll I’m worried about,” said Dole.

And Kemp said the apparently narrowed margin only proved their need to be keep up an aggressive campaign: “Polls tell you what people think today; they don’t tell you what people will think tomorrow with new information.”

Newsweek said 933 registered voters were interviewed by Princeton Survey Research Associates for the latest poll.