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Republican challenger Robert Hurt takes a double digit lead in 5th District Congressional Race

A News7 SurveyUSA poll gives Hurt a 23 point advantage over Democratic incumbent Tom Perriello

Joe Dashiell

Reporter

4:21 PM EDT, July 20, 2010

ROANOKE, Va.

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If 5th District Congressman Tom Perriello was expecting a difficult re-election campaign, a new poll suggests just how tough it could be. An exclusive News7 SurveyUSA poll gives his Republican opponent Robert Hurt a lead of more than 20 percentage points.

In a telephone survey, 591 likely voters were asked who they would support if the election were held today. 58 percent said they would vote for Republican Robert Hurt, 35 percent said they supported Perriello, and four percent were behind Independent Jeffrey Clark.

The survey sample included more Republicans than Democrats, evidence SurveyUSA says of "an energized Republican base and an enthusiasm gap for Democrats." If the likely voter model included an equal number from each party, SurveyUSA  says Hurt still wins by eleven percentage points.

In August of 2008, Perriello was behind by more than 30 points in a SurveyUSA poll , but went on to defeat Republican incumbent Virgil Goode by 727 votes.

 

Here's a look at the survey results:

Asked of 591 Likely Voters
Margin of Sampling Error for this question = ± 4.1%

[Candidate names rotated]
If the election for U.S. House of Representatives were today, who would you vote for? Republican Robert Hurt? Democrat Tom Perriello? Or Independent Jeffrey Clark?

 

58%

Robert Hurt (R)

35%

Tom Perriello (D)

4%

Jeffrey Clark (I)

3%

Undecided

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