The latest poll on the 2nd Congressional District confirms what political observers have been saying for months now: that the race will be incredibly close.
According to the poll, commissioned by the Portland Press Herald and conducted by the University of New Hampshire, Republican Bruce Poliquin and Democrat Emily Cain take 41 and 40 percent of the vote respectively, PPH writer Steve Mistler reported. Independent Blaine Richardson earned 8 percent and 9 percent of the voters polled were still undecided.
Mistler reported that 291 likely voters were polled between Oct. 15 and 21. The margin of error is 5.5 percent. The September poll the Press Herald commissioned put Poliquin 10 points ahead of Cain, though at that time only 220 likely voters were questioned, which is considered a very small sample size.
The other two polls that were conducted in September cast the race between Cain and Poliquin as much closer, with Richardson consistently trailing. One had Poliquin ahead and the other put Cain in the lead.
After the primary election, when Cain bested Troy Jackson and Poliquin easily defeated Kevin Raye, the narrative seemed to be that Cain would undoubtedly take the seat that has been held by Mike Michaud for 12 years. Now, with eight days to go before the election, the one thing that everyone seems to be able to agree on is that this will be a tight race.