Don’t look so sad, Sen., just think of all the mountains you will be able to climb

The latest Quinnipiac poll released this morning showed that U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner is maintaining his lead over incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Udall.  Head to head, Gardner maintained his lead 46% to 41%.  Udall was at 41%.  Another 6% are planning to vote for Steve Shogan and, unbelievably after tens of millions in advertising, harassing phone calls, and more mail than Santa before Christmas, 6% remain undecided. Udall hasn’t budged since last week – he was at 41% then, and continues at 41%.  From the Quinnipiac press release:

“The needle is barely moving for U.S. Sen. Mark Udall and U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner in a Senate race with potential national consequences” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

Shogan appears to be taking more support from Udall than Gardner – without Shogan the race would be closer at 47% Gardner and 44% Udall.

Additionally, the gender gap in this poll continues to close in favor of Gardner – last week, women were voting Udall 49-41, but this week it’s Udall 45-41.  But, the interesting part of the gender breakdown is that in an effort to fan the flames of the war on women message, Team Udall is inadvertently giving men absolutely no reason to vote for their candidate.  While there’s a four point spread in favor of Udall among women, there’s a 13-point spread in favor of Gardner among men.  Double edged sword there, friends.

But, that’s not the worst of it.  Udall’s favorability has taken a nosedive, and at this juncture, it’s tough to rebound.  Here’s what Malloy said about it:

“Sen. Udall still trails in the matchup and, perhaps more troubling, in favorability among Colorado voters who are positioned to shift control of the Senate.”

Whereas Gardner’s Human Sunbeam attitude earned him a positive rating of 49-42 percent, Udall has a slightly negative rating at 44-49 percent.  This is not the place we’d like to be if we were Team Udall going into the final stretch of the campaign.