Clinton’s Lead Drops A Bit; Perot Steady In Last Place

President Clinton’s re-election lead over Bob Dole may have slipped slightly in the past week, while Ross Perot got no bounce after deciding to make another White House bid, according to a national poll released Thursday.

Clinton held a 12-point lead in a hypothetical three-way race with Dole and Perot in the survey conducted July 12-16 for the PoliticsNow site on the World Wide Web. His lead was 17 points in a July 3-7 poll for PoliticsNow.

Three other national polls since July 10 had Clinton’s lead steady or growing at 22 points to 25 points in a three-way race, although a fourth had it at 16 points. Variations in poll results can stem from various factors, including timing and differences in question wording and other elements of poll design.

Clinton got 45 percent, Dole 33 percent and Perot 11 percent in the new PoliticsNow poll, conducted by ICR Survey Research Group of Media, Pa., among 822 registered voters. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

In a July 3-7 survey for PoliticsNow, Clinton polled 49 percent, Dole 32 percent and Perot 11 percent.

That poll was taken before Perot announced he would seek the presidential nomination of the Reform Party, which he founded. Former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm also is seeking the Reform Party nomination.