With less than two weeks to go before the mid-term elections Republican incumbent John Katko has developed a decent lead over his Democratic challenger Dana Balter.
Fifty-three percent of those polled are backing Katko, while 39 percent said they’re voting for Balter. Eight percent said they remained undecided.
Steven Greenberg, a pollster with the Siena College Research Institute, says the numbers suggest broad bi-partisan support for the two-term incumbent.
“He clearly has gotten Democratic votes in the past and what we see in this polling right now is that 20 percent of Democrats say they’re prepared to re-elect Congressman Katko,” said Greenberg.
The Spectrum News/Syracuse.com/Siena Research Institute poll released Sunday talked with 500 likely voters in the 24th Congressional District, which includes Onondaga, Cayuga and Wayne counties, and a portion of Oswego County.
Of those polled, 44 percent said they’d prefer to see a Democratic-controlled Congress, while 49 percent said they’d like to see Republicans maintain the majority.
“Voters factor in a variety of things when they decide on how they’re going to vote, where candidates are on the issues is another piece of it, whether they like, trust, feel good about the candidate is a third piece of it,” said Greenberg.
The age of the likely voters sampled was overwhelmingly 55 and older, but there was another interesting statistic that emerged when it came to President Trump — his job approval was evenly split at 48 percent with 4 percent undecided.
Ultimately Greenberg says while Balter faces an uphill challenge, a late comeback is possible.
“Her campaign has to have a solid ground game because she’s got to bring out Democrats who don’t traditionally vote in mid-term elections, those Democrats who come out and vote in presidential elections, she’s going to need every one of them if she wants to have any chance of closing this gap,” said Greenberg.
Katko and Balter will face-off in a debate Thursday at 7 p.m. on Spectrum News.