A new tracking poll by Rasmussen Reports, which is generally considered a right-leaning survey firm, gives Democrat Christopher Murphy a five percentage point lead over Republican Linda McMahon.
Rasmussen surveyed 500 likely voters by phone on Sunday, the same day that McMahon and Murphy jousted in their first televised debate of the campaign.
The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Its release comes less than a week after Quinnipiac University released its own poll, showing McMahon with a 1-point lead over Murphy, effectively a statistical dead heat.
UPDATE
Rasmussen confirms it conducted the poll after Sunday’s acrimonious debate between Murphy and McMahon, which aired on WFSB Channel 3.