Franken pulls ahead in new Minn. poll

A new Star Tribune Minnesota poll released yesterday shows a 13-point jump in support in the last month for Democratic comedian-turned-politician Al Franken, who's now taken his first clear lead, 43 percent to 34 percent, in the much-watched race against Minnesota incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

The Star Tribune poll also shows support for the relatively low-profile campaign of Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley at a high watermark of 18 percent, with most of his support drawn from Coleman, in what may be an indication of local unhappiness with Washington in general and Republicans in particular. Franken continues to lead Coleman, though, in a hypothetical two-candidate matchup.


Two trends seem to be contributing to Franken's lead in the Star Tribune poll, which also showed Coleman's job-approval rating at a new low of 38 percent. In what's been a fiercely contested campaign, Coleman has taken heat for the tenor of his advertising, with 56 percent of respondents seeing ads aimed at Franken as “mostly unfair personal attacks,” while just 42 percent said the same about those aimed at Coleman.

The poll also found Democrats have opened a substantial lead in party identification, with 42 percent of likely voters self-identifying as Democrats, compared with just 26 percent self-identifying as Republicans.

The poll's results contrast starkly with the SurveyUSA poll conducted for local station KSTP-TV last week, which shows Coleman up 43 percent to 33 percent, a 10-point improvement for the Republican since their last poll three weeks ago.

A separate new SurveyUSA poll shows McCain with a 1-point edge in Minnesota, while the RealClearPolitics polling average shows Obama with a 5-point advantage.