Lt. Gov. Phil Scott has a solid lead over former Transportation Secretary Sue Minter in a new political poll released on Monday.
With two weeks to go until election day, the WCAX-TV poll put Scott ahead 47-40 percent. Bill “Spacemen” Lee came in at 4 percent. There were 7 percent undecided.
The numbers represent a shift from a poll last week by Vermont Public Radio that had the race dead even, with Scott pulling in 38 percent and Minter 37 percent. In the VPR poll, Lee had 2 percent and there were 14 percent undecided.
Braun Research conducted the poll for WCAX, which had a margin of error of 4 percent. More than 600 Vermont voters were contacted last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The polling started two days after WCAX held a debate.
Both major party candidates had high favorability ratings, with more than two-thirds of respondents, 69 percent, voicing a favorable view of Scott, the Republican, and more than half, 53 percent, for Minter, the Democrat.
Pollster Paul Braun said Minter will need a large turnout and to pick up backing from supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who toured the state last weekend with the Democratic Party statewide candidates, if she wants to reverse the poll trend.
Elliot Bent, a spokesperson for Minter’s campaign, said there was a “massive outpouring of support” for Minter as she campaigned with Sanders. He also said Vermonters would “see through” the advertisements critical of Minter being paid for by the Republican Governor’s Association.
Minter appeared to sharpen her attacks on Scott at a debate on Sunday, charging Scott “walked away” from his support of gay marriage by being absent for a key vote.
Braun also speculated that Minter may be suffering because of a lack of enthusiasm for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who defeated Sanders in the primaries.
The Scott campaign did not issue an immediate comment on the poll.
