| Results of SurveyUSA Election Poll #14480 |
| Dog-Gone It -- Minnesotans Start to Like 3rd Party Candidate Dean Barkley:
In an election for United States Senator from Minnesota today, 10/02/08, incumbent Republican Norm Coleman defeats DFL candidate Al Franken 43% to 33% to win a second term, according to this SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KSTP-TV in Minneapolis, WDIO-TV in Duluth, KAAL-TV in Rochester, and KSAX-TV in Alexandria. But:
the big story
in the poll data is the continuing surge of Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley, who today gets 19%.
Compared to an identical SurveyUSA poll released 3 weeks ago, Franken is down 10 points; Coleman is up 2 points; Barkley is up 5 points. Barkley today gets 27% of the vote among seniors, 31% of the vote among Independents and 30% of the vote among those focused on health care. Combined with the 5% of voters who tell SurveyUSA they are undecided, 1 in 4 today vote for neither Coleman nor Franken.
Among men, Coleman is flat; Franken is down 6 points; Barkley is up 7. Barkley represented Minnesota in the United States Senate for two months following the death of Paul Wellstone in 2002. Barkley is at or above 20% among men, moderates, those who did not attend college, those who rarely go to church, pro-choice voters, those with incomes less than $50,000 a year, and in Northeast and Southern Minnesota. |
| Filtering: SurveyUSA interviewed 900 Minnesota adults 09/30/08 and 10/01/08. Of them, 839 were registered to vote. Of the registered voters, 725 were determined by SurveyUSA to be likely voters in the 11/04/08 general election. Interviews were conducted after the U.S. House of Representatives failed to pass an economic recovery bill but before the U.S. Senate did pass a bill. Norm Coleman voted for the bill. |
 | If the election for United States Senator were today, would you vote for ... (choices rotated) Republican Norm Coleman? DFL candidate Al Franken? Or Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley? |
| 725 Likely Voters | All | Gender | Age | <50 / 50+ | Race | Party Affiliation | Ideology | College Grad | Attend Religious Service | Abortion | Change Your Mind | Top Issue For Next President | Income | Region | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Credibility Interval: ± 3.7 pct points | Male | Female | 18-34 | 35-49 | 50-64 | 65+ | 18-49 | 50+ | White | Black | Hispanic | Other | Republic | Democrat | Independ | Conserva | Moderate | Liberal | Yes | No | Regularl | Occasion | Almost N | Pro-life | Pro-choi | Could Ch | Mind Mad | Economy | Environm | Health C | Iraq | Terroris | Social S | Educatio | Immigrat | < $50K | > $50K | Twin Cit | South MN | West MN | Northeas | |
| Norm Coleman (R) | 43% | 43% | 42% | 44% | 47% | 40% | 36% | 46% | 38% | 45% | ** | ** | ** | 83% | 10% | 39% | 77% | 35% | 5% | 47% | 40% | 51% | 39% | 28% | 63% | 26% | 33% | 46% | 45% | ** | 23% | 32% | 78% | ** | ** | ** | 34% | 47% | 42% | 36% | 55% | 38% |
| Al Franken (DFL) | 33% | 32% | 35% | 33% | 29% | 39% | 35% | 31% | 37% | 31% | ** | ** | ** | 6% | 65% | 26% | 8% | 40% | 72% | 35% | 32% | 29% | 34% | 45% | 17% | 50% | 25% | 36% | 33% | ** | 46% | 49% | 8% | ** | ** | ** | 39% | 32% | 35% | 41% | 22% | 33% |
| Dean Barkley (IP) | 19% | 21% | 18% | 13% | 20% | 19% | 27% | 17% | 22% | 19% | ** | ** | ** | 10% | 19% | 31% | 14% | 20% | 15% | 15% | 22% | 18% | 19% | 22% | 16% | 20% | 31% | 16% | 18% | ** | 30% | 16% | 14% | ** | ** | ** | 24% | 16% | 19% | 20% | 19% | 22% |
| Undecided | 5% | 4% | 5% | 10% | 4% | 2% | 3% | 6% | 3% | 5% | ** | ** | ** | 0% | 7% | 4% | 1% | 5% | 8% | 3% | 5% | 2% | 8% | 5% | 4% | 5% | 11% | 2% | 4% | ** | 1% | 3% | 0% | ** | ** | ** | 3% | 5% | 4% | 3% | 4% | 8% |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Composition of Likely Voters | 100% | 49% | 51% | 22% | 35% | 23% | 19% | 57% | 43% | 91% | 3% | 2% | 4% | 30% | 37% | 21% | 31% | 43% | 15% | 42% | 58% | 51% | 27% | 22% | 45% | 51% | 21% | 77% | 62% | 2% | 8% | 7% | 6% | 3% | 3% | 4% | 34% | 66% | 58% | 13% | 14% | 15% |