Several anti-war groups released a poll Wednesday that said Sen. Elizabeth Dole may be politically vulnerable because of her support for the war in Iraq.
The survey found that seven GOP senators in New Mexico, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Kentucky, Minnesota, Maine and Virginia would lose to generic Democratic candidates. And the main reason was that the public is upset over the war in Iraq, Rob Christensen reports.
"This is a fairly bleak picture for Republican incumbents across these states," said Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster. "If the election were held today, the Democrats would pick up seats in those states."
Greenberg said support for the war was waning even among Republican-leaning groups such as rural voters, Deep South voters, white married men, evangelicals and conservatives.
The poll of 1,000 likely voters was commissioned by Americans Against Escalation in Iraq.
Mark Stephens, a Dole political strategist, dismissed the poll results, saying that the results of more liberal states were clumped together with those of more conservative North Carolina voters in painting a misleading picture.
"No doubt that the war has an impact on the electorate," Stephens said. "But to come out and state that Senator Dole is vulnerable based on that kind of polling is sort of silly on the face of it."
