GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush continues to hold a lead over Democratic challenger Al Gore in a new poll, though that lead has dipped slightly this week,
Portrait of America reported.
According to analysts Friday, Bush still leads with 43.7 percent to Gore’s 40.5 percent; on Thursday, Gore had slightly more than 39 percent of the popular vote.
Meanwhile, other candidate shifts were noted by analysts as well, including a slight gain by Reform/Natural Law Party candidate John Hagelin.
Hagelin’s numbers had not registered before Friday, but the former college professor managed a 0.1 percent showing in POA’s most recent three-day summary.
Elsewhere in the contest, Green Party nominee Ralph Nader has 3.3 percent; Reform’s other nominee, Patrick J. Buchanan, has 1.5 percent; Libertarian Harry Brown has 0.6 percent; and the Constitution Party’s Howard Phillips has 0.2 percent.
An even 10 percent of respondents say they are not sure, POA said.
On the campaign trail, Buchanan managed to be named to the ballot instead of Hagelin in California, a decision bitterly disputed by Hagelin campaign officials and one that is likely to be challenged in court, according to statements made Thursday by John H. Place, vice chairman of the Reform Party of California.
On Friday, the Bush campaign will complete a seven-day, seven-state tour promoting the Texas governor’s educational initiatives in Louisiana and Texas. Also, a new GOP ad criticizing Gore for his attendance at a Buddhist fund-raiser and for his claims that he invented the Internet has begun to air across the country, GOP officials said.
For his part, the vice president ended a week of touting health-care initiatives on Thursday, pledging to an audience in Seattle, Wash., that he would push for a “Patient’s Bill of Rights” that he says will “ensure that the power in the health-care industry is taken away from bureaucrats and given back to doctors.”
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WND Staff