ShareIN Sen: Coats Continues to Dominate
IN Sen: Coats Continues to Dominate
Former Indiana Republican Senator Dan Coats holds a commanding 21-point lead over Democratic Congressman Brad Ellsworth in the race to replace outgoing Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, according to a new poll from Rasmussen Reports.
The survey of 500 likely Indiana voters conducted last week shows Coats leading Ellsworth 50-29. After earning the support of 36 percent of voters in May, Ellsworth's numbers have steadily fallen.
Coats is running to regain the Senate seat he held from 1989-1998. Appointed to replace Dan Quayle after he was elected vice president, Coats was elected to a full six-year term in 1992. He decided not to run for re-election in 1998, and was succeeded by Bayh.
Bayh stunned the political world in February by announcing he would not seek re-election, moving Indiana from a relatively safe Democratic seat to a top pick up target for the GOP.
Ellsworth, the former sheriff of Vanderburgh County, ousted six-term Republican John Hostettler in the competitive "Bloody Eighth" district in 2006, but faces an even tougher challenge this year running statewide in a decidedly more difficult political climate for the Democratic Party.
Two years ago Barack Obama won Indiana by two points, 50 to 48, becoming the first Democrat to carry the Hoosier State since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. According to the Rasmussen poll, 60 percent of Indiana voters now disapprove of President Obama's job performance.
The Rasmussen Reports survey of 500 likely Indiana voters was conducted on August 4, 5 and 7. The poll has a 4.5 percent margin of error.
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