Poll: Democrat Markey Leads GOP's Gomez by 6 in MA Senate Race

Two days after the Massachusetts primary election in which Ed Markey won the Democratic nomination and Gabriel Gomez won the Republican nomination, the Emerson College Polling Society released a poll that shows Markey has only a 42% to 36% lead over Gomez in the contest to select who will replace John Kerry in the Senate. Voters will make their choice in the special election on June 25.

According to do the poll, Markey has a 48% to 37% favorable to unfavorable rating, while Gomez has a 45% to 25% favorable to unfavorable rating. Independents support Gomez over Markey by 46% to 25%. Women favor Markey over Gomez by 46% to 29%, and men favor Gomez over Markey by 44% to 37%.

The survey was taken of 797 respondents in the state of Massachusetts and has a 3.4% margin of error.

Markey has attacked Gomez as being an “anti-woman” candidate, but Thursday on Boston radio station WRKO’s powerhouse afternoon talk program, the Howie Carr Show, Gomez told host Howie Carr that “there’s only one person in this race who voted to repeal Roe v. Wade and it’s not me.”

Gomez repeated his support for Marco Rubio and the “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill. “I’m with Marco Rubio on immigration,” he told Carr.  “Doing nothing is effectively amnesty.”

Carr challenged Gomez’s understanding of the bill’s content. “Senator Sessions (R-AL) says that under this bill newly legal residents will be immediately eligible for Obamacare and welfare,” Carr said.

Gomez disputed this understanding, saying “what I’ve read is that under this bill, you don’t get Obamacare or welfare until you’re a citizen.”

Carr was unimpressed with Gomez’s grasp of the content of the “Gang of Eight” legislation. “I implore you to take a look at this bill,” he told Gomez, but Gomez stood firm in his support of Rubio and the bill he’s co-sponsored.

“Beating Ed Markey is the important thing to focus on here,” Gomez added. “He hasn’t been in the real world, and now he’s slinging mud and not talking about the economy.”

Markey, 66, has served as a Democratic member of the House of Representatives for 36 years. Gomez, 47, is a former Navy SEAL turned businessman who has never held elected office.