Now that conservative stalking horse Joe Visconti has finally dropped his six gun along with his gubernatorial candidacy, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is pulling away from challenger Tom Foley, 47-44 in the final Quinnipiac Poll. But the results are still within the margin of error in a super-tight replay of the 2010 election that Malloy won by 1 percent, 6,404 votes.
Seven percent, enough to sway the race, remain undecided, more than 900 likely voters told Quinnipiac Poll surveyors.
Last week’s poll showed Foley, a Greenwich investor seeking his first elective office, ahead in a 46-45 race with Malloy.
The poll finds that GOP voters support Foley 89 – 7 percent, while Democrats are behind Malloy 86 – 10 percent. Independent voters are split divided with 44 percent for Malloy and 45 percent for Foley. Malloy leads Foley 53 – 38 percent among women, while Foley leads 51 – 41 percent among men.
“Contrary to conventional wisdom, independent candidate Joe Visconti’s last minute exit from the governor’s race doesn’t look like it will help Republican Tom Foley,” said Douglas Schwartz, director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. Connecticut likely voters give Foley a split 42 – 44 percent favorability rating and Malloy still gets a negative 43 – 49 percent. The poll was taken from October 28 to November 2, among 926 likely voters with a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points.