[Reader comments are now open.]

* For context, the Tribune’s poll (March 2-6) had this race at 67-25 for Clinton, while the We Ask America poll (March 7-8) had Clinton’s lead at 62-25. Things can change fast in presidential primaries, so a Sanders surge wouldn’t be a huge surprise, especially after what happened to Clinton in Michigan.

* With that out of the way, let’s start with this new survey…



CBS NEWS POLL: Bernie Sanders is leading Hillary Clinton in Illinois, 48% to 46% https://t.co/9QVGJMkjUp pic.twitter.com/iMBAkD3Kta — CBS News Politics (@CBSPolitics) March 13, 2016

* From CBS…

In Illinois [Sanders] is leading among white voters and is supported by almost one quarter of African Americans. In Illinois Sanders leads Clinton on the metric of being honest and trustworthy, and is helped by a majority of voters wishing to switch to more progressive policies than those of the Obama administration.

But keep this in mind…

This CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker is a panel study based on 5,300 interviews conducted on the internet of registered voters in Florida, Illinois, Ohio. The poll was conducted by YouGov, an online polling organization.

Not loving that type of poll, but whatever.

Also, the high margin of error means this is still anybody’s ballgame, but if Sanders is indeed surging, the trend is not Clinton’s friend (and, yes, those are hack phrases, but I felt like using them anyway - it’s the weekend).

* On to NBC…

She’s above 50, but, again, that apparent Sanders surge must have her worried and is probably why I see Sanders’ ads all over my teevee right now. Sanders has been smartly making the horribly unpopular Mayor Rahm Emanuel a major campaign issue, saying recently that he’s happy Rahm didn’t endorse him, telling reporters that if he lived in Chicago he’d be involved in the “Resign Rahm” movement and running ads blasting Emanuel. As we’ve already seen, numerous legislative candidates have attempted to tie their opponents to Emanuel in their Democratic primary campaigns this season.

* From NBC…

The size of Clinton’s lead in all three states directly correlates to her advantage with African-American Democratic voters - 57 points in Florida (77 percent to 20 percent), 48 points in Ohio (72 percent to 24 percent) and 39 points in Illinois (67 percent to 28 percent). Among Latinos, Clinton holds just a five-point edge over Sanders in Florida, 51 percent to 46 percent, while Sanders leads Clinton among Latinos in Illinois, 64 percent to 30 percent.

That huge Sanders lead over Clinton among Latinos here is somewhat unexpected, but he has the strong endorsement of people like Chuy Garcia.

* Methodology…