Rasmussen

Democratic U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg leads Republican challenger Dick Zimmer by thirteen percentage points, 49%-36%, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released today. A July 17, 2006 Quinnipiac poll had Republican Tom Kean, Jr. and incumbent Bob Menendez in a statistical dead heat: Kean 40%, Menendez 38%. A June 19, 2002 Quinnipiac poll had incumbent Bob Torricelli leading his GOP challenger, Douglas Forrester, 44%-36% And a July 27, 2000 Quinnipiac poll had Democrat Jon Corzine running twenty points ahead of Republican Bob Franks, 50%-30%. By Election Day, only the Corzine/Franks race was close.

Patrick Murray, the Director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, has an interesting post on summer polling in U.S. Senate races that is a must read for campaign watchers.

Quinnipiac University will release a new poll on the battle for New Jersey’s fifteen electoral votes on Thursday morning.  A recent Rasmussen Reports poll has Democrat Barack Obama leading Republican John McCain by nine percentage points.

Democrat Frank Lautenberg and Republican Dick Zimmer are in a statistical dead heat , 45%-44%, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll released today – the first since the June 3 primary election.  The survey was conducted last week, after Lautenberg, a five-term incumbent, defeated Rep. Andrews in the Democratic primary.  Zimmer, who served in Congress from 1991 to 1997, won a three-way GOP primary.

Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama in each independent poll released over the last four days – but in many with slim margins:

Quinnipiac 48%-43%
Norcross 44%-38%
McClatchy/MSNBC 46%-39%
Monmouth/Gannett 50%-34%
Reuters/CSpan/Zogby 43%-43%
Mason Dixon 46%-39%
SurveyUSA 51%-39%
Rasmussen 49%-37%