Bennett still has giant lead

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, continues his commanding lead over his Democratic challenger, former Utah Attorney General Paul Van Dam, in the latest Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll.

Van Dam is gaining support, however. The poll, taken by Dan Jones & Associates, found that 64 percent of Utahns would vote for Bennett and 24 percent for Van Dam if the election were held today.

That's an 8-point boost for Van Dam and a single point increase for Bennett since the last poll was taken for the newspaper in March. The current poll of 923 Utahns statewide was conducted May 10-13 has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent.

Bennett was pleased but not surprised by the results.

"Nobody's looking at this race," Bennett said. "They're focusing on the governor and on the 2nd District, where they perceive there's a horse race. With the perception that the Senate race is already over, that obviously works to my advantage."

Van Dam, who dropped out of politics after his term as attorney general ended in 1992, said even some of his friends haven't figured out he's a candidate. "When people who know me don't even know I'm running . . . we have a big job ahead of us."

He's already had a strong showing at the state Democratic convention, held just before the poll was taken. Van Dam won 97 percent of the party's delegates over rival Cody Judy, who served time in prison for threatening an official of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The poll also found that the percentage of undecided voters has dropped as well, from 16 percent in March to 10 percent in May. Bennett said undecided voters typically go with the challenger rather than the incumbent because they're looking for an alternative.

Bennett said the poll results show that only a small percentage of voters aren't satisfied with his job performance. Those voters may be up for grabs, but without a dramatic drop in his approval rating, he doesn't see them hurting him.

"I'm hoping that this 64 here, compared with the 63, represents a stability in the approval rating of 12 years of hard work that is not going to be eroded with six months of frantic campaigning," Bennett said.

Van Dam, though, is just starting a monthlong bicycle tour through southern Utah intended to raise his profile with voters there as well as attract much-needed publicity to his campaign in the rest of the state.