Another Poll Shows Close Governor’s Race, Peters Leading Senate Race

WASHINGTON DC – The gubernatorial race between Republican Governor Rick Snyder and Democratic challenger Mark Schauer is within the margin of error, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Gary Peters is extending his lead over Republican Terri Land in the U.S. Senate race, according to a new poll.

The survey by EPIC/MRA for the Detroit Free Press and several television stations showed Mr. Snyder at 46 percent and Mr. Schauer at 43 percent, a statistical tie with the poll’s error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The poll cheered Democrats. It is the second poll this week to show Schauer in a dead heat with Snyder while a third poll gave Snyder a clear lead.

The last EPIC/MRA poll in May showed Snyder up 9 percentage points, so this new survey will lend credence to the idea that the race has tightened following a wave of advertising from the Democratic Governors Association.

Meanwhile, Peters has expanded his lead since the last EPIC/MRA survey from 6 to 9 percentage points, topping Land 45 percent to 36 percent.

Perhaps the most notable number is that of the four major party candidates for governor and U.S. Senate, Land is the only one underwater on her favorability ratings with 30 percent of those surveyed having a favorable impression of her to 34 percent unfavorable in a sign that weeks of negative ads from Democratic groups and bad publicity over her personal finances have taken a toll.

In the attorney general’s race, Schuette led both potential Democratic nominees. He topped Mark Totten by a 39 percent to 33 percent score and Godfrey Dillard by a 40 percent to 31 percent margin.

The poll was conducted July 12-15 via live telephone interviews, 20 percent of which were through cell phones. Of those surveyed, 41 percent identified as Democrats compared to 37 percent as Republicans.

Of note, the NBC News/Marist poll from earlier this week showed Snyder at 46 percent to 44 percent for Schauer. That survey had a 7-point gap between those in the survey identifying as Democrats compared to Republicans while the EPIC/MRA gap was just 4.

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