
Another precinct has been heard from. The national NKOTB doing business as State Navigate has come out with its final pre-election poll on Vermont’s top two races, and the results track closely with previous polling. In the race for governor, incumbent Phil Scott has a narrow lead on challenger Amanda Janoo, but it’s within the dreaded Margin of Error and beneath the 50% threshold. That’s right: Mr. Popularity still hasn’t mustered a majority against a first-time candidate who was a virtual unknown in Vermont politics until the spring of this year. In the race for lieutenant governor, Democrat Molly Gray holds a seemingly insurmountable lead over incumbent Republican John Rodgers.
State Navigate, for those unfamiliar, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan outfit that does state-level polling through digital means. I haven’t done a deep dive, but they seem legitimate. Their results track closely with polls by the UNH Survey Center and Vermont Public.
Bottom line: This new poll gives Scott 49% to Janoo’s 46%. The undecideds are at 3%, and other candidates (mainly independent Brian Judd and June Goodband of the Peace and Justice Party) get 2%. State Navigate’s earlier poll showed the same margin between Scott and Janoo, but more voters undecided or opting for minor candidates. No surprise, more and more people are making up their minds and migrating to the top two choices. And no surprise, they’re more or less splitting down the middle. If that trend continues, Scott would win by the smallest margin of any of his six campaigns for governor. Hell, I think it might be the smallest margin of victory he’s ever enjoyed, going all the way back to his first state Senate race in 2000.
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