Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon appears poised for an easy victory tomorrow, according to an election eve Quinnipiac University poll.
The survey of 664 likely Republican primary voters, taken from Aug. 3-8, has McMahon leading rival Rob Simmons, 50 to 28 percentage points. Peter Schiff, the third Republican in the field, captures 15 percent of the vote, with more than 50 percent of those surveyed saying they have not heard enough about him.
There's a ray of hope for Simmons and Schiff: While only seven percent of GOP voters remain undecided, 30 percent said they may change their minds before entering the voting booth.
"In the Republican Senate contest, it looks like Rob Simmons would need ore than a surprise,'' Q poll director Doug Schwartz said, "he would need a miracle to catch Linda McMahon. But in politics, miracles do happen."
Simmons, a former congressman who has been active in state politics for more than a decade, actually has a lower favorable rating than McMahon.
Sixty four percent of those surveyed view the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO favorably; 28 percent percent unfavorably. Simmons is viewed favorably by 50 percent of those polled.
Thanks to a near ubiquitous television advertising campaign, just three percent of the GOP electorate hasn't heard of McMahon, a newcomer to politics and virtual unknown outside wrestling and entertainment circles prior to Sept., 2009, when she announced her Senate bid.
Thirty one percent of likely GOP voters view Schiff favorably, but without a broad-based media strategy, he remains unfamiliar to 51 percent of them.