A new poll of independent, moderate and swing voters shows Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow with a 10-point lead over former Republican congressman Pete Hoekstra, 52 to 42 percent, according to details released this morning.
The mid-December survey, commissioned by the Michigan Democratic Party and conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, focuses on Wall Street issues and how they might impact middle-of-the-road voters in the Michigan Senate race. The information released by the Democrats does not mention any of the Republican contenders except for Hoekstra, who is viewed as the prohibitive favorite to the win the GOP primary in August.
The poll found that Hoekstra’s bid to appeal to tea party voters by favoring repeal of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill may backfire.
GQRR found that Stabenow’s position of maintaining the reforms aimed at big investment banks is favored by a 58 to 34 percent margin among the respondents, particularly swing voters.
Poll participants were read two statements, one reflecting the incumbent’s view that Wall Street “greed” must be held in check and the banks must be held accountable so that a financial meltdown like the 2008-09 downturn does not happen again.
The statement favoring Hoekstra’s view said that Dodd-Frank contains “job-killing” regulations and has only succeeded in hurting the economy and making it difficult for people to obtain a bank loan.
The poll of 603 voters was conducted Dec. 15-19 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
