The first Quinnipiac University poll of Connecticut’s race for governor found Gov. Ned Lamont with a 17 percentage point lead over Ryan Fazio, a Republican trying to become the first candidate to unseat a governor in the state since 1954.
Lamont led Fazio 55% to 38%, a comfortable lead attributed to the continuing gender gap in which women favor Democratic candidates: Lamont led 64% to 30% among women, while Fazio was narrowly favored by men, 47% to 44%.
The poll was released Wednesday, the same day Fazio challenged the Democratic governor to accept invitations to six debates, not the two televised events signed off by the governor’s campaign. Neither would take place before early voting begins on Oct. 19.
Fazio, 36, a state senator from Greenwich elected five years ago, badly trails Lamont, 72, a two-term governor, in name recognition, making him eager for more head-to-head events with the incumbent.
“For the governor not to want to debate more than two times, but also not to want to debate before early voting starts — and tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Connecticut voters have already made their decision — it’s a disservice to the public,” Fazio said.
Lamont and Fazio are scheduled to debate Oct. 22 on WFSB and Oct. 27 on WTNH, both at 7 p.m.
“Gov. Lamont has already agreed to 10 public events [with Fazio], including eight forums and two debates,” said Lauren Gray, a spokeswoman for Lamont’s campaign. “The Fazio campaign doesn’t want to debate more, they want to create more noise.”
Forty-five percent of voters told Quinnipiac they didn’t know enough about Fazio to say whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion. For Lamont, the number was 11%. Of those with an opinion, the favorable/unfavorable split was 28% to 25% for Fazio; 50% to 36% for Lamont.
A recent Sacred Heart University poll also had Lamont with a double-digit lead that slightly shrunk since its first poll on the race in July.
One of the discouraging findings for Lamont in the Quinnipiac poll is a relative lack of enthusiasm about his candidacy for a third term. Only 27% of voters backing the Democrat described themselves as “very enthusiastic” about their choice, compared to 39% of Fazio supporters.
Fifty-three percent of Lamont voters described themselves as “somewhat enthusiastic,” 10% “not so enthusiastic,” and 4% “not enthusiastic at all.” Fazio’s split: 51%, “somewhat enthusiastic;” 6% not so enthusiastic; and 3% “not enthusiastic at all.”
Voters were split on the degree to which they are satisfied with how things are going in Connecticut: More than half were very satisfied (8%) or somewhat satisfied (44%), compared to 25% somewhat dissatisfied and 22% very dissatisfied.
Slightly more than half of voters had a less than satisfactory view of the Connecticut economy, with 34% calling it “not so good” and 19% rating it “poor.” Two percent called it excellent; 43% said good.
President Donald J. Trump’s approval rating was nearly 40 points under water: only 28% approve of how he is handling his job and 67% disapprove.
The poll was based on live telephone interviews of 1,288 likely voters reached by random digit calling to landlines and cell phones from Sept. 8 to 14. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
