Gov. Riley, Republicans Expected to Win Big in Alabama

November 7, 2006

A new statewide poll indicates Alabama Gov. Bob Riley is headed to an easy re-election victory over Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley and puts Republican candidates ahead in the races for lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state.

The survey, taken for The Birmingham News and other news organizations, also shows Republican Drayton Nabers and Democrat Sue Bell Cobb are about even in the race for chief justice of Alabama.

The telephone poll, which was released Saturday on The News web site, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. It was taken Tuesday-Thursday among 500 voters who said they would vote on Tuesday.

Asked for whom they would vote if “the election for governor were held today,” 59 percent said the Republican, Riley; 31 percent said the Democrat, Baxley; and the rest were undecided.

On final campaign swings, Riley told voters in Mobile and Baldwin counties his re-election would keep the state moving forward, while Baxley in southeast Alabama cast herself as the candidate of the working people.

Riley on Saturday finished a five-day, 29-town bus tour with stops along the Gulf Coast. Baxley spent Saturday in Pike County, riding in Troy University’s homecoming parade, and in Montgomery, where she filmed an interview for broadcast Sunday on a prominent black church’s weekly television show.

In polling on other races:

• Lieutenant governor candidate Republican Luther Strange was the choice for 50 percent of likely voters compared to 39 percent for Democrat Jim Folsom Jr. The remaining 11 percent were undecided.

• Republican incumbent Troy King had 51 percent in the attorney general’s race while his Democratic challenger John Tyson Jr., the Mobile County district attorney, had 33 percent.

• Republican Beth Chapman was chosen by 42 percent of those surveyed, compared to 32 percent for Democratic incumbent Nancy Worley in the secretary of state’s race.

• In the campaign for chief justice, Democratic challenger Cobb was the choice of 44 percent, while Republican Nabers was preferred by 43 percent.

The poll was directed by Larry Powell, professor of communication studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

State Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham disputed the poll Saturday, saying the numbers “do not reflect what’s going on on the ground.”

“We think in the majority of statewide races Democrats are either ahead or in the margin of error to make a run on Tuesday,” he said.

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Information from: The Birmingham News

Topics Alabama Politics

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