Politics

Gore Suffers In Latest Poll

May 10, 2000 / 9:23 AM EDT / AP

A nationwide Los Angeles Times poll published in Wednesday's editions reports Republican George W. Bush leads Democrat Al Gore by 8 points in the race for president.

The poll shows Bush now leads Gore among registered voters by 51 percent to Gore's 43 percent.

The figures changed little when participants were polled on Ralph Nader, the Green party nominee, and Pat Buchanan, the likely Reform party nominee. In the four-way matchup, Bush drew 47 percent to Gore's 39 percent, with 4 percent for Nader and 3 percent for Buchanan.

Other polls recently have shown Bush with a slight lead in the race, but polling evidence has been mixed.

Gore and Bush were statistically tied in a poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. Bush had 46 percent and Gore had 45 percent in the poll of 940 registered voters taken May 2-6.

The Times poll also showed Texas governor Bush drawing 48 percent of women voters to Gore's 46 percent. Women voters have been a Democratic stronghold in recent years; exit polling found President Clinton leading by 16 percentage points among women in the 1996 election.

Among men, Bush leads Gore by 55 percent to 39 percent, and is even attracting about one-fifth of Democratic men.

Bush also has solidified a broad base of support among Republicans, while support for Gore among Democrats has weakened. According to the poll, Bush is winning about nine in ten GOP partisans, while Gore is winning only five of every six Democrats.

In addition, Bush is successfully courting centrist swing voter groups, who were crucial to Mr. Clinton's two victories.

Among Democrats who consider themselves moderates or conservatives, Bush is taking one in five voters, while Gore is winning only one in seven moderate Republicans.

The poll found Bush leads among self-described independents overall by 16 percentage points.

The newspaper's poll surveyed 1,211 registered voters between May 4-7. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Five percent of respondents polled said they didn't know who to vote for.