Republican Jane Corwin leads among registered voters in New York’s 26th district special election, according to a poll released Friday by the Rochester Business Journal.
In what has turned out to be a surprisingly tight race, Corwin leads in the RBJ Daily Report Snap Poll, getting 48 percent of the vote from registered voters, while her Democratic opponent Kathy Hochul gets 36 percent. Tea Party candidate Jack Davis comes in with only 13 percent.
The poll was conducted on a sample of 620 readers between May 16 and May 17. Of that sample, only 35 percent said they were registered to vote in the 26th district.
Among all respondents, not just those who are registered voters in the 26th district, the race is much tighter. Forty-five percent said they favored Corwin, while 41 percent said they favored Hochul, suggesting that get-out-the-vote efforts will be very important for both parties.
Corwin is the clear favorite among Republicans, garnering 76 percent of the vote compared to Davis’ 12 percent. Hochul is the favorite among Democrats, but also among non-affiliated or ‘other’ voters, where she leads Corwin 46 percent to 37 percent.
The poll suggests that the race continues to remain tight as election day approaches, but it should be noted that the poll has a relatively small sample size, and that just over a third of that sample said they were registered voters.