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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spin Control

Poll: Murray, Rossi still tied

Patty Murray and Dino Rossi are tied in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll, each with 47 percent of the people responding to automated calls on June 22.

A month ago, Rasmussen had the race at 48 percent Murray, 47 percent Rossi -- which means there's been no change in the race. Why? Because the survey of 500 people has a margin of error of 4.9 percent, so a 1 percent shift is meaningless. In fact, Rasmussen has essentially had the two candidates in the same ballpark for months: Murray has ranged from 46 percent to 48 percent, and Rossi from 49 percent to 46 percent.

When asked about a potential November matchup between the other two leading GOP candidates, Murray does slightly better. She leads Clint Didier 48 percent to 40 percent, and leads Paul Akers 48 percent to 38 percent.

One caveat about the poll: Each matchup contains a few percentage points for "some other candidate" which is apparently part of the automated script that's read before the person is asked to press a button to show support for a candidate. In the general election in Washington, there is no "other candidate." It's just the two top voter getters from the Aug. 17 primary, and a space for a write in.

The poll also suggests Washington voters are about evenly split between supporting and opposing repeal of national Health Care Reform, about one in five considers  him or herself a member of the Tea Party movement, and three out of five think U.S. troops should be sent to the Mexican border to prevent illegal immigration. (Apparently they didn't ask about sending troops to the Canadian border...)

To read more about the poll, click here to go to the Rasmussen site.



The Spokesman-Review's political team keeps a critical eye on local, state and national politics.