Poll: Obama expands lead in Minnesota

Posted at 11:49 AM on October 9, 2012 by Catharine Richert
Filed under: Campaign 2012: Presidential Race

With four weeks to go before Election Day, it appears President Barack Obama has a comfortable lead in Minnesota according to a new poll by Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling.

Obama has the support of 53 percent of likely Minnesota voters, while Mitt Romney has 43 percent. Four percent say they haven't decided who they're voting for.

The firm's last poll had Obama leading by 7 percentage points.

Though Minnesotans overwhelmingly thought Romney won last week's debate - 64 percent said he came out on top - his performance hasn't given him a boost here as it did nationally.

"Mitt Romney's received a bounce nationally after his debate victory last week but not in Minnesota," said Public Policy Polling president Dean Debnam. "Barack Obama continues to lead by a healthy margin there."

The poll also asked voters whether they trust Obama or Romney more on the economy and foreign policy, and Obama leads on both questions.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar has a healthy lead over her Republican opponent Kurt Bills. If votes were cast today, she would snag 57 percent of the vote and Bills would take 31 percent. Twelve percent remain undecided about the race.

Perhaps Sesame Street character Big Bird should run for office in Minnesota, too.

According to the poll, 61 percent have a favorable view of the famous yellow bird, while 32 percent say they aren't sure how they feel about him. Just 7 percent say they have an unfavorable view of Big Bird.

The children's show icon has become the topic of campaign ads and talking points in the last week after Romney said in the debate that he would cut funding for PBS, which airs Sesame Street. Fifty-six percent of Minnesotans say they support federal funding for PBS, while 29 percent said they don't and 15 percent said they aren't sure.

Public Policy Polling surveyed 937 likely Minnesota voters from October 5-8. The margin of error for the survey is 3.2 percentage points.

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