In New Hampshire, Presidential hopefuls Republican John McCain and Democrat Bill Bradley lead their parties just two weeks before the state's primaries, according to a poll released by the Rockefeller Center yesterday.
The poll was the second of four to be conducted jointly by Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center and The Associated Press.
McCain and Bradley have both reversed positions with their closest competitors since the last poll was released in early November.
At the time, Vice President Al Gore was ahead in the New Hampshire race for the Democratic nomination while Texas Governor George W. Bush was the frontrunner among Republican candidates.
Bush now trails McCain among likely Republican voters -- 33 versus 42 percent. Steve Forbes, who received an endorsement from 11 percent of the voters polled, was the only other Republican presidential hopeful with double-digit support.
Bradley leads Gore among likely Democratic voters. Forty-nine percent of those polled preferred Bradley, while 43 percent indicated they would vote for Gore.
A Quinnipiac College poll last week corresponded closely with the Dartmouth poll.
The margins of errors were plus or minus 4.8 percent and 4.3 percent for the Democratic and Republican samples respectively, which means that both New Hampshire races are close. The Democrats, in particular, are in an almost dead heat.
Nationwide, however, Gore and Bush still have large leads over their opponents as the candidates seek party nominations.
A joint Gallup, USA Today, and CNN poll released last week showed Gore garnering nearly twice the support Bradley received and Bush receiving more than three times that of McCain.
Fowler called McCain's New Hampshire turnaround the "main story" within the poll results.
McCain received the highest "net favorability rating" of the three frontrunners when pollsters asked respondents to evaluate their feelings toward the candidates. He was also most highly regarded by voters appraising candidates leadership ability and trustworthiness.
"I think that a big part of Bush's dominance in the early polls was his name recognition. Once McCain was able to spend time in the state, it was inevitable that some of Bush's support would erode," Fowler said.
She also pointed out that McCain's time in New Hampshire earned him a lot of free publicity through media coverage.
Since the last poll, both Gore and Bush have lost more supporters than their main opponent. This was determined thanks to the poll's "panel component," for which respondents to the November poll were reinterviewed.
"We were able to track what the people who switched were thinking in November and now," Fowler said.
McCain attracted 80 percent of the voters who switched their support from Bush, while Bush managed to draw in only 20 percent of those who withdrew their endorsement of McCain.
Also notable in the new poll results is the fact that gender gaps evident during the November poll disappeared, especially among Republican voters.
Among Democrats, men still prefer Bradley and women favor Gore, but the differences are much smaller now than they were in November.
One more poll will be completed prior to the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 1. Another is scheduled as a post-election follow up.
