With two weeks left before the special election, a new poll indicated the gap between U.S. Senate hopefuls Martha Coakley and Scott Brown has narrowed, while the pair also clashed on taxes, health care and profiling in the country’s war on terror during a radio debate yesterday morning.
The Rasmussen Reports poll, which surveyed 500 “likely voters” by telephone on Monday, found the Democrat, Coakley, leads the Republican, Brown, by nine points, 50 to 41 percent, with seven percent undecided. Yet the poll found Brown leads among unenrolled voters 65 percent to 21 percent and only trails by two points among those surveyed who are “absolutely certain they will vote.”
Though the Democratic party has considerably more registered voters and historic clout in Massachusetts than the Republican party, an expected low voter turnout could also help Brown, according to the poll.
Coakley and Brown, along with independent Joseph L. Kennedy, will face off in the special election Jan. 19, but two more debates remain — in Springfield on Friday and at UMass Boston next Monday.
