John Boozman Far Ahead of Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas Senate Race

Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln narrowly escaped defeat in a primary and then again in a runoff, but there's nothing narrow about the margin that four-term Republican Rep. John Boozman has over Lincoln in her bid for re-election, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Aug. 18.

Boozman, who won his primary outright, leads Lincoln by 65 percent to 27 percent with 4 percent preferring some other candidate and 3 percent undecided. That ties the largest margin (38 points) he enjoyed in seven previous Rasmussen match-ups dating back to February. The closest Lincoln ever came was last March when Boozman led 48 percent to 39 percent.

Lincoln made it this far by turning back a primary challenge in May from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter by two points and then defeating him in a June run-off by a bare four points.

Boozman is seen favorably by 67 percent of voters and unfavorably by 26 percent, with 7 percent not sure. Lincoln is regarded unfavorably by 63 percent and favorably by 34 percent, with 3 percent not sure. A whopping 38 percent see her "very" unfavorably -- more than three times the number in that category for Boozman.

Fifty-five percent of voters regard Boozman's view as "mainstream" compared to 37 percent for Lincoln. A majority of the voters classify her as a liberal and 46 percent put her views outside the mainstream, double the number who see Boozman that way.

Lincoln's problems don't stop there. Sixty-nine percent of Democrats support her in the race compared to 89 percent of Republicans who back Boozman. Boozman leads her among unaffiliated voters by more than 8-to-1. (Unlike some other pollsters, Rasmussen does not say what size the party identification samples are).

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