After calling some of his constituents racist, Jack Murtha is only four points ahead of his opponent William Russell (with other Republican internal polls I don't particularly trust showing Murtha down significantly).
Democratic Rep. John Murtha leads retired Army Lt. Col. William Russell by a little more than 4 percentage points, within the Susquehanna Poll's 4.9-point margin of error. The poll of 400 likely voters was conducted for the Tribune-Review on Tuesday, amid uproar over Murtha's statement that some of his constituents are racist.
Murtha's reelect numbers are bad, with 54% of voters "saying it's time for someone else to represent them in Congress" and "35 percent saying Murtha deserves to be re-elected." Russell moved into the district a year ago to take out Murtha based on the Haditha controversy. He's funded by far right money and going for the conservative military vote. Here's the ad he's running against Murtha.
Russell is not from the district, he's a carpetbagger with the standard wingnut positions on social issues. He can be taken down, but right now, it's an unexpectedly tough race.
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