Another Poll Shows Culver Badly Trailing Branstad for Iowa Governor

A second poll in a week's time has Iowa's Democratic governor, Chet Culver, trailing former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad by double-digits.

Branstad leads Culver 53 percent to 37 percent with 6 percent preferring some other candidate and 4 percent undecided, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey conducted Feb. 18. The margin of error is 4.5 points.

A Research 2000 poll, conducted Feb. 15-17,had Branstad leading Culver 54 percent to 38 percent with 8 percent undecided.

Another Republican hopeful, businessman Bob Vander Plaats, leads Culver 46 percent to 40 percent with 7 percent preferring someone else and 7 percent undecided. Culver had a statistically insignificant lead over Vander Plaats in the Research 2000 survey.Culver is seen unfavorably by 55 percent and favorably by 42 percent while Branstad is seen favorably by 57 percent and unfavorably by 38 percent. Notable in those numbers is that 27 percent regard Branstad "very" favorably compared to only 14 percent for Culver, while 34 percent see Culver "very" unfavorably compared to 18 percent for Branstad.

Vander Plaats is seen favorably by a 43 percent to 34 percent margin, with 23 percent not knowing enough about him to have an opinion.

Branstad draws support for 76 percent of fellow Republicans while Culver gets 66 percent among Democrats. Branstad
has a 3-to-1 lead among voters not enrolled in either party.

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