Poll: Dean widens lead over Kerry [View All]

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Dean affirms his lead, new poll finds

By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff, 10/26/2003

Howard Dean is holding firmly to his lead in the New Hampshire primary, largely untouched by the high-profile entry of retired Army General Wesley K. Clark into the race or by targeted attacks from other candidates, according to a poll of independent and Democratic voters conducted last week.

Dean, the former governor of Vermont, drew support from 37 percent of those surveyed -- a 13-point lead over the next closest candidate, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry, who garnered 24 percent. The other seven contenders, including Clark, remained far behind, with support in single-digit figures, according to the Boston Globe/WBZ poll conducted by KRC Communications Research.

Perhaps most notably, Dean surged into the lead as the Democrat considered most able to beat President Bush, with 35 percent of respondents choosing him as the strongest general election candidate. Twenty percent said the same for Kerry -- a sharp drop from a Globe poll taken six weeks earlier that found Kerry and Dean all but tied on the same question.

"I think Democrats want a winner at all costs, and Kerry has underperformed in some Democratic primary voters' view," Jennifer Donahue, senior adviser for political affairs at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College. "They will go with whoever they think can beat Bush, and right now Dean has come across in a more clear and convincing fashion than Kerry. That doesn't mean Kerry can't do it, but so far they have found in Dean someone they feel confident in."

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http://www.boston.com/news/politics/polls/articles/2003/10/26/dean_affirms_his_lead_new_poll_finds/