Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Ed Markey leads Republican businessman Gabriel Gomez by ten points in a poll released Monday, one day before Massachusetts voters go to the polls to determine who will fill the vacant Senate seat.
The Suffolk University Poll found Markey poised for victory, leading Gomez 52 percent to 42 percent. The pollsters surveyed 500 likely voters by phone from Wednesday through Saturday. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Republicans had been hoping that Gomez, a former Navy SEAL, would be able to recapture the magic that propelled former Republican Sen. Scott Brown to a surprise victory over Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley in the last special election in 2010. Democrats sought to prevent a repeat of that episode, sending Democratic stars to help Markey to victory: President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden all traveled to Massachusetts to campaign for the longtime Democratic congressman. But Gomez failed to catch the same kind of fire.
Markey also leads in three areas that pollsters call “bellwether areas,” since they correctly predicted the results of the 2010 election. In Lowell, Markey leads 49-38; in Dartmouth he tops Gomez 52-37; and in South Hadley he is up 51 percent to 37 percent.
The Senate seat was vacated when former Sen. John Kerry left to become Secretary of State. The special election is Tuesday.