STAFF REPORT
A new poll shows that newcomer Harley Rouda starts out in a statistical dead heat, three points ahead of entrenched incumbent Dana Rohrbacher for the race in the 48th congressional district
The poll also showed a massive 19% democratic edge in voter enthusiasm between the two parties.
The poll was done by Monmouth University, one of the most reputable companies in the nation.
Rohrbacher still counts on his support from white males and people who did not graduate from college, 55 to 34%.
Rouda’s supporters are women, voters younger than 50, and non-whites.
Many experts say Rouda will win if he gets the non-white voters out in force.
The district has slowly moved from Republican to Democrat and Rohrabacher is worried, given his support of Russian President Vladimir Putin. and bashing gays will erode his support even further.
A few weeks ago Rohrbacher lost an endorsement from the National Association of Realtors for saying that people should be able to refuse to sell their homes to gay people.
Another ominous sign for Rohrbacher; 75% of Democrats in the poll said they had “a lot” of interest in the Congressional election, compared with 56% of Republicans.
in 2010 when Obama lost both the House and Senate, that spread was only 8%.
The poll interviewed 402 to voters with a margin of error of 4.9%, meaning Rouda could be up by 7.9% or down by 1.9%.