Friday, October 29, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Reid holds onto big lead against Ziser

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Sen. Harry Reid's lead over Republican challenger Richard Ziser has narrowed slightly in recent days, although the incumbent Democrat appears to be headed for an overwhelming victory in his race for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate, according to a new poll.

Reid leads Ziser by 24 percentage points, or 59 percent to 35 percent, in the survey of 625 likely voters throughout the state.

The telephone poll was conducted Tuesday and Wednesday for the Review-Journal and reviewjournal.com by the Washington, D.C. firm of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research. The margin of error is no more than plus or minus 4 percentage points.

A mid-October Mason-Dixon poll showed Reid trouncing Ziser by 27 percentage points, or 59 percent to 32 percent.

Reid, the second-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate, continues to lead Ziser among a mix of voters: men and women, Democrats and Independents, and residents of Clark and Washoe counties and rural Nevada. His lead among Democrats is by a margin of 92 percentage points to 3 percentage points.

"Senator Reid is essentially working as hard today as he has been throughout the election. Senator Reid is cautiously optimistic, but he's not taking anything for granted," said Reid campaign spokeswoman Tessa Hafen, who said her boss was unavailable for comment Thursday afternoon.

Ziser's only edge against Reid is among Republican voters, who prefer the evangelical Christian and vocal opponent of gay marriage by a margin of 69 to 25 percentage points. The poll surveyed 266 Republicans, 270 Democrats and 89 independents.

The 51-year-old Ziser, who successfully led a late-1990s push for a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, is counting on Republicans to come out in droves and support him on Tuesday.

"I'll just repeat we're out there getting out our message as best we can," Ziser said.