GOP's Rob Portman Widens Lead Over Lee Fisher in Ohio Senate Race

Former Republican Rep. Rob Portman has expanded his lead over Democratic Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher in the race to fill the seat of GOP Sen. George Voinovich, who decided not to seek re-election, according to a Public Policy Polling survey conducted Aug. 27-29.

Portman leads Fisher by 45 percent to 38 percent, with 18 percent undecided, compared to Fisher's 40 percent to 38 percent edge in PPP's late June poll. The margin of error is 4.5 points.

The picture of Portman's progress is in synch with a mid-August Rasmussen Reports poll that had him ahead by 45 percent to 37 percent, compared to a previous Rasmussen poll where his lead had only been 4 points.

Both candidates are still unknown to a lot of voters. Forty-four percent don't know enough about Fisher to express a favorable or unfavorable opinion about him and the same is true for 43 percent of voters when it comes to Portman.

Portman is getting stronger support from fellow Republicans (83 percent) than Fisher is getting from his Democratic base (71 percent). Portman leads among independents (20 percent of the sample) by 43 percent to 30 percent with 26 percent undecided.

"Democrats almost everywhere are suffering not just from independents leaning toward Republicans but from a base problem -- fewer of their voters are planning to show up at the polls than even in usual midterm elections, and those who do are not as unified around their nominees as are Republican voters around theirs," said PPP's Dean Debnam. "Lee Fisher has to galvanize his base to win this race. If only 40% of the electorate is Democrats, and only 70% of them vote for him, he loses."

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