Hickenlooper Moves Ahead

The latest Rasmussen poll shows Mayor John Hickenlooper leading former Congressman Scott McInnis by 4 percentage points. This is a shift of 7 percentage points toward the Mayor since the January 6 reading when it was first announced he would be the likely candidate.

When Hickenlooper first announced an interest, it was pointed out his popularity in the Denver metro area (55% of Colorado voters), Front Range name identification, a generally favorable image and a lack of strong partisan identity helping him with independent voters made him a formidable candidate and much stronger than Gov. Bill Ritter.

McInnis trails Hickenlooper 13 percent to 35 percent in high favorability (52% McInnis to 56% Hickenlooper overall positive favorable rating). Hickenlooper has 11 percentage points in name identity advantage over McInnis (8% don’t know Hickenlooper to 19% McInnis). Also, Hickenlooper has a 5 point advantage among unaffiliated voters.

Since Rasmussen has received considerable criticism recently from Democrats over polls showing Democrats behind Republicans, he included a host of data touting his final polling in the 2008 and 2004 presidential races, the 2008 Colorado senate race and 2006 governor’s race. However, Democrats and their new media allies are less likely to criticize this poll.

(See Rasmussen topline and articles in The Daily Times, Washington Times and 9News)