Polls: Presidential race close

The Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic candidate John Kerry is slightly ahead of President Bush in a poll of registered voters in New Jersey, a state Democrat Al Gore won in 2000 by almost 16 percentage points.
Forty-six percent of the respondents support Kerry, 43 percent support Bush, and 5 percent say they support independent candidate Ralph Nader, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Thursday.
Among independent voters, the two were about even.
Kerry’s popularity is low in New Jersey. Twenty-seven percent viewed Kerry favorably, 28 percent unfavorably, and 33 percent had mixed feelings, according to the poll.
‘‘Despite all the bad news out of Iraq, President Bush is threatening to make a horse race out of New Jersey, a state everyone had put in the ‘safe’ column for John Kerry,’’ said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. Just over half said they approve of Bush’s job performance.
In Florida, Bush and Kerry are tied. Bush had the backing of 47 percent, Kerry of 46 percent and Nader at 3 percent, a poll by the American Research Group found.
The Quinnipiac telephone survey of 1,122 registered voters was conducted May 10-16 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The ARG poll of 600 likely voters was taken May 17-19 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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