Matheson, GOP incumbents leading races

Democrat Jim Matheson holds an 11 percentage point lead over Republican Derek Smith in the 2nd Congressional District as the 2000 election races to a close Tuesday, a new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll shows.

But the Republican incumbents seem safe in other top contests, pollster Dan Jones & Associates found in a survey of registered voters completed Friday.

And while Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore are in neck-to-neck races in a dozen states, Bush has no worries here in Utah, where he holds a 35 percentage point lead.

GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch has a 36-point lead over Democratic challenger Scott Howell.

U.S. Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, holds a 41-point lead over Democrat Kathleen McConkie Collinwood in the 1st Congressional District.

Rep. Chris Cannon has an 18-point lead over Democrat Donald Dunn in the 3rd District.

Two-term Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt is maintaining his lead over Democrat Bill Orton, ahead by 16 percentage points in this latest poll.

In the state attorney general race, GOP candidate Mark Shurtleff has widened his lead to 9 points over Democrat Reed Richards, with 19 percent undecided. The October poll showed only a two-point difference between the two.

The 2nd District is one of perhaps two dozen House contests across the nation that could determine who controls the 435-member U.S. House over the next two years.

In the last two surveys for the newspaper and TV station — taken in September and October — Smith was steadily closing on Matheson. Two months ago, Matheson led by 14 points; in October just 10 points.

But that momentum has stalled, the new poll shows. Matheson holds about the same lead he did four weeks ago, Jones found.

Among registered voters who said they were very likely to vote Tuesday, Smith improves. Jones found the race 45-to-40 percent for Matheson among them.

Jones, who has polled in Utah for 25 years, says a number of those interviewed by telephone over the last eight days said they found the negative ads in the 2nd District offensive.

In a KUER radio debate Thursday night, Smith was lectured by two citizens on the station's panel, both saying they are Republicans who are upset over the tone of the campaign against Democrat Matheson.