New poll indicates Marianas Islands controversy isn't hurting Schaffer

A Rasmussen Reports poll released Friday shows Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall leading Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer 45 to 42.

The poll, conducted on April 16 among 500 likely Colorado voters, is similar to previous polls in recent months and suggests Schaffer is not being hurt by recent news reports about his controversial trip to the Northern Marianas Islands.

The poll, like most polls on the race conducted within recent months, show the two candidates polling within the margin of error. In this poll, the margin-of-error was +/- 4.5 percentage points.

The poll shows that Udall and Schaffer have similar favorable/unfavorable ratings: 48 percent gave Udall a "very favorable" or "somewhat favorable" rating, while Schaffer garnered 47 percent in the same catagories.

Both Udall and Schaffer were seen as "very unfavorable" or "somewhat unfavorable" by 37 percent of those polled. 

The poll also showed 54 percent gave Gov. Bill Ritter (D) a "very favorable" or "somewhat favorable" rating. Ritter received a "fair" rating from 25 percent of those polled; 18 percent said he was doing a "poor" job.

The new poll was reported Friday on the SchaffervUdall blog.