markey vs gomez vs markey campaigning.jpg

Left, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Malden, shakes hands with supporters as he campaigns in Boston; right, Republican Gabriel Gomez greets supporters at Samuel's Sports Bar in Springfield.

(Photos by Associated Press (Markey) and The Republican (Gomez))

A poll released Friday by New England College finds Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Edward Markey with a 20-point lead over Republican Gabriel Gomez.

It is the second poll in two days to find Markey up by such a huge margin. While previous polls had given Markey leads ranging from seven to 11 points, a Boston Herald/UMass Lowell poll released Thursday also put Markey up by 20.

The recent polls indicate that Markey is in a very strong position heading into Tuesday’s special election.

The New England College poll found Markey leading Gomez, 56 percent to 36 percent, with 8 percent undecided. Those were identical to the numbers in the Boston Herald poll.

The poll found that Markey has increased his lead in the last month due to growing support among female voters as well as a strong ground game.

Markey has stressed so-called “women’s issues” such as abortion and health care coverage on the campaign trail. The poll found that 9.2 percent of voters listed “women’s rights” as the most important issue to them, a distant third to the deficit and taxes but above environmental protection, holding down prices, national defense and terrorism. Women voters now support Markey 61 percent to 32 percent, the poll found.

The poll also indicates that Markey has a stronger campaign organization. Among the 58 percent of respondents who had been contacted by one of the campaigns, 65 percent were supporting Markey and 29 percent were supporting Gomez.

The telephone poll of 579 likely voters was conducted June 18-20 and has a margin of error of plus or minutes 4.07 percent. Full poll results can be found on the New England College website.