Poll: Booker's lead dwindles in N.J. Senate race

Catalina Camia | USA TODAY

Maybe Cory Booker will have a tougher time against Steve Lonegan than people think.

A new Quinnipiac Poll shows a closer-than-expected U.S. Senate race in New Jersey between Booker, Newark's Democratic mayor, and GOP nominee Lonegan. Booker leads Lonegan, 53%-41%, in the survey of likely voters.

Booker has had far bigger leads against Lonegan, a former mayor of Bogota, N.J., in other polls. But you can't compare this Quinnipiac survey with the firm's poll from last month because that one took the temperature of registered voters, not those most likely to go to the polls Oct. 16.

Booker and Lonegan are vying to replace Democrat Frank Lautenberg, who died in June.

Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, surmised that a rise in violent crime in Newark and recent publicity about Booker's stake in the tech start-up Waywire. In the end, Carroll believes the Democrat will prevail.

"But if it's not a blowout, it still looks like a comfortable lead for Booker," Carroll said. "New Jersey is a blue state and it hasn't elected a Republican senator — let alone a conservative one — since Sen. Clifford Case in 1972."

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