Doheny trails Owens in DCCC poll

Incumbent Democratic Congressman Bill Owens leads Republican challenger Matt Doheny by 12 points in a poll commissioned by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The results, which were released last week, show Owens leading Doheny, a businessman from Watertown, by a 50-38 margin. The results were released by DCCC, and the poll itself was conducted by Anzalone Liszt Research.

The following comes from a press release issued by DCCC:

In the initial three-way head-to-head for New York's 21st Congressional district, Owens leads Doheny 50 percent to 38 percent with Green Party candidate Donald Hassig taking 4 percent. Even if Doheny were to pick up all 8 percent of undecided voters, he would still trail Owens by 4 points. Owens remains extremely popular with a better than 2-1 favorability ratio, and is better known across the district. Conducted July 29-31, the poll surveyed 400 likely voters and has a 4.9 percent margin of error. "It's clear that Bill Owens has cemented his reputation as an independent leader for middle class families in Upstate New York," said Josh Schwerin, Northeast Press Secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "Just like last election, voters are rejecting Matt Doheny who is once again running to join Republicans in Washington who voted to drastically cut Medicare and force seniors to pay more for their healthcare while giving tax breaks to millionaires and corporations shipping jobs overseas."

Doheny's campaign spokesman, Jude Seymour, issued this statement in response to the poll:

"The fact that Bill Owens can’t break 50 percent as an incumbent in a poll commissioned by his own party is indicative of how much trouble he’s in this fall. When people find out that Owens is part of job-killing agenda of this administration, that number is going to be much lower than 50 percent."