AP Photo Iowa poll: Sanders closing on Clinton

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is rapidly closing the gap with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but she still maintains a solid lead in Iowa's Democratic caucuses, according to a poll released Saturday.

Clinton, the Democratic front-runner and establishment favorite, is drawing support from 37 percent of caucus-goers.Sanders earns 30 percent. Vice President Joe Biden, who is still wavering on making a run, earns 14 percent. This is the first time Clinton has fallen short of a majority in the Iowa poll, conducted by pollster Ann Selzer forThe Des Moines Registerand Bloomberg, this year.


"This feels like 2008 all over again," Selzer told the paper, referring to then-Sen. Barack Obama's remarkable victory over Clinton in the caucuses then. In January, Clinton led Sanders by more than 50 percentage points,and he drew just 5 percent.





Without Biden in the contest, Clinton's support jumps to 43 percent and Sanders' climbs to 35 percent. The three other Democrats running for the presidency—former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee—all fail to earn even5percent of the vote.

Clinton remains broadly popular with Democratic regulars in the state. Seventy-seven percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers have a favorable opinion of her, and19 percent have an unfavorable opinion. Those numberswere88 percentfavorableand 10 percent unfavorable in June. Only 13 percent said they could never support her in the caucus. Sixty-one percent said controversies surrounding her use of a private email server while working assecretary ofstate were "not important." And two-thirds are "mostly confident" Clinton would win a general election.

Sanders' popularity has boomed. Seventy-three percent of likely caucus-goers have a favorable opinion of him, up from37 percent in January. Then, a majority of likely Democratic voters didn't know enough about Sanders to have an opinion. Among Sanders supporters, 96 percent said they back him because they like his ideas and policies. Only 3 percent support him because of dislike for Clinton.





Only 8 percent said they had a negative opinion of Sanders.Clinton'sunfavorables are more than twice as high at 19 percent.

Selzer conducted the poll of 404 likely Democratic caucus-goers fromAug. 23 through 26. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

