In today's Quinnipiac poll, Tom Foley, the former ambassador to Ireland leads in the Republican primary for governor with 37 percent, followed by Lt. Gov. Mike Fedele with 11 percent. Businessman Oz Griebel had 5 percent.
The poll showed that 42 percent of Republicans are undecided, and the percentage of GOP voters who don't know about the candidates to form an opinion ranges from 58 percent to 88 percent.
In the Democratic primary race for governor, former U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont leads Dannel Malloy, 41 to 24 percent with 30 percent undecided. Malloy, the former mayor of Stamford, was the party's endorsed candidate at Saturday's convention in Hartford. Lamont gets a 46 to 12 percent favorability rating among Democrats, and 39 percent haven't heard enough to form an opinion, the poll indicates.
Overall, 65 percent of Democrats said they did not know enough about Malloy to form an opinion - even though he won his party's convention twice for governor and has been running for the office for six years. He raised and spent $4 million in an unsuccessful race in 2006 - losing in the primary that summer to New Haven Mayor John DeStefano.
The 65 percent who said they do not know enough about Malloy only covers Democrats.
"You've got to figure it's higher among the total'' population, said Douglas Schwartz, the Q pollster.