The second Quinnipiac University poll in two weeks is set to debut tomorrow morning. Throughout 2010, the poll has appeared on a fairly regular schedule, about every other month.
But poll director Doug Schwartz said the institute decided to conduct another survey so soon after the May 27 poll to measure the impact of Democrat Richard Blumenthal's military misstatements.
"The Vietnam flap was such a big story, we wanted tot see whather there would be any additional slippage of Blumenthal in the race,'' Schwartz said. "When there's a big event, it can alter our schedule...we try to hit all of our states once every other month, but always caution that can change depending on what's in the news.''
For instance, the polling institute conducted monthly surveys in the spring of 2009, documenting U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd's precipitous public approval slide following the AIG bonus controversy.
Did the fact that the May 27 Q poll showed a much larger lead for Blumenthal -- 25 percentage points -- over Republican Linda McMahon than either candidate's internal polling has?
No, says Schwartz. "We just do our own thing. We don't take into consideration the other polls...we focus on our own polls.''