New Hampshire Election 2014: GOP's Marilinda Garcia Struggles While Scott Brown Leads Against Democratic Incumbents
Two of New Hampshire's U.S. congressional seats could sway in favor of the two Republican candidates come midterm Election Day based on new polling figures from the Granite State.
Overall Polling Figures:
Only one congressional Senate seat is available for Republicans to gain in November. Currently held by Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, former Republican Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has managed to surpass the incumbent in New England College Polling Center's latest survey among New Hampshire residents.
If elections were held today, New Hampshire respondents gave Brown the advantage with 48 percent while Shaheen received 46.9 percent. Specifically, Brown garnered 519 votes to Shaheen's 507 votes. "Another candidate" received 2.8 percent while 2.3 percent of respondents were "not sure" whom to vote for next month.
The tide appeared to be going in Brown's favor based on New England College Polling Center's previous poll conducted on Sept. 26, when Shaheen led over Brown by 0.5 percent of the vote (47.1 percent to 46.6 percent).
New Hampshire's 2nd Congressional District is also held by a Democrat, but Rep. Ann McLane Kuster has seen her lead increase against Republican challenger Marilinda Garcia, a state representative. According to New England College Polling Center, the Democrat incumbent leads over Garcia 3.6 percentage points. Specifically, Kuster received 46.1 percent while Garcia received 42.5 percent. Only 545 New Hampshire residents from the 2nd Congressional District voted on this questionnaire and 19 votes separated the House candidates.
Second Congressional District voters were more likely to vote for another candidate than in the state's senate election as 6.6 percent preferred someone else. Nearly 5 percent of voters were "not sure."
For New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District, Republican candidate Frank Guinta has a 15-vote advantage, which equated to 46.3 percent to incumbent, and Democrat, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter's 43.5 percent.
Gender Figures:
New Hampshire's senate election has split opinion based on gender. Shaheen secured more votes from women than Brown with 51.7 percent to 43.1 percent. Men favored Brown with a double-digit lead over Shaheen. Brown received 53.5 percent of the male vote while 41.3 percent went for the incumbent. The New England College poll, however, surveyed more women than men, 576 to 505 voters.
In the 2nd Congressional District, women favored Kuster with 48.2 percent while Garcia received 39.2 percent. Six percent of female voters said they would vote for another candidate while 6.6 percent were not sure. Among men, Garcia was the favorite but by a narrow margin. Men went for Garcia with 46.2 percent while Kuster received 43.6 percent. Some men, with 7.3 percent, would vote for another candidate while 2.9 percent were not sure.
For the 1st Congressional District, Shea-Porter won the female vote with 47.5 percent to Guinta's 42.1 percent. Guinta won the male vote with 51.2 percent to 39 percent for Shea-Porter.
Similar to the Senate figures, more women were surveyed in both congressional districts than men. The 1st Congressional District included 286 female voters than 250 male voters. The 2nd Congressional District recorded 289 female voters than 256 male voters.
The New England College Polling Center poll surveyed 1,081 people on Oct. 9.